In a digital landscape flooded with misinformation, fact-checkers and journalists in Bangladesh are on the frontlines, working to separate truth from falsehood.
Dhaka Tribune interviewed investigative reporter Badruddoza Babu, Rumor Scanner’s Head of Operations Sajjad H. Chowdhury, and FactWatch’s Fact-Checker Shuvashish Das Ray Dip to find out the details of the methods, motivation, and mechanics of searching for the facts.
The fact-checking organization Rumor Scanner started its journey during the pandemic. Chowdhury told Dhaka Tribune: “There was a lot of misinformation about the remedy, medication and vaccine for Covid-19 when we started.”
The organization started with six people, which grew into a team of 20 people over the last five years. In its first year, the organisation published 72 articles compared to its astonishing 2,669 articles last year.
What are the causes of misinformation or disinformation?
According to Chowdhury of Rumor Scanner, the main causes of spreading disinformation come from political, ethnic and religious motivations.
“Confirmation bias is another cause for spreading misinformation,” said Chowdhury.
FactWatch’s Dip says the definition of misinformation and disinformation is problematic.
He reasoned that it is not possible to be sure whether an intention is behind it or not.
Liability and media literacy
Dip said: “I think one should be held liable for spreading false information.”
“Media literacy as a whole should be included from the primary education level. Students need to realise that they will enter the information ecosystem and they need not believe everything that they hear.”
“If we can include media literacy in primary education, we can reach a ground where we can at least say the children now know more,” said Dip.
When misinformation increase
Rumor Scanner’s Chowdhury remarked that 2024 was a big year for misinformation because of the National election and the mass uprising.
He said: “If those events were not there, maybe we would have to deal with around 2,000 rumours.”
Dip of FactWatch said: “The reason behind the increase of false information after August was when the democratic spheres open, political participation is increased, misinformation also increases.”
According to Dip, the increase in misinformation is not problematic, the problem is not knowing the consequences of the misinformation.
He said: “Bangladesh has a common pattern of attacking religious institutions. If a blasphemous message is the information, the attacks are the consequences. If we know the consequences and address the law, then no personal attack will happen.”
What information gets prioritised to be fact-checked
Chowdhury of Rumor Scanner said: “We give the most priority to politics and religion, followed by national issues.”
He added: “Debunking religious misinformation is important because it can lead to riots.”
Dip remarked that FactWatch has parameters for prioritising information.
He said: “Our first parameter is the importance. We identify whether the news is harmful to a community or the mass people, and the level of its probable harm.”
Besides harmful news, FactWatch also checks news which is viral, and people believe that it is true.
Process of fact-checking
People can reach Rumon Scanner on their Facebook page, group, and WhatsApp number. Besides the organisation also monitors all social media, including Facebook, YouTube and X.
Chowdhury said: “We need to verify the claim and check whether it is coverable or not. Then, we research the information. Based on the result of the research, we make a decision. If the primary research shows the information is false, then we have material to write the article.”
“For international topics, we use reputed international media as a source,” he added.
According to Chowdhury, the organisation also tries to reach the incident-related people or organisations via phone or email. For local topics, Rumor Scanner tries to reach the local deputy commissioner, officer-in-charge, or Upazilla Nirbahi Officer.
The organisation states that it also tries to reach people on both sides of the
information.
According to Dip, FactWatch has to build an argument against information.
He gave an example of if the information is an image, they do a reverse image search. If they see this image is uploaded before, in a different place their argument dictates that it can not be today’s image.
He said: “We have to check who is funding the source, and whether they have previous record of spreading false information, the source can be a mainstream media house or an individual.”
FactWatch uses tools like Google Lens and other available image search tools for reverse search. For video, the organisation uses the InVID plugin.
The organisation uses Hive Moderation or Is ItAI toolsto get primary ideas about whether the image is AI or not.
Funding
Dip said: “Funding is important for the source and the fact-checking organisation. The credibility of a source depends on its funding transparency. If some page is funded by any political party, we have to think about how and when we will receive the information from them. We have to check the funding bias of everyone.”
Factwatch is a partner of Meta. The organisation does fact-checking of their Bangla content. They have a contract with them since 2021.
According to Chowdhury, Rumor Scanner is getting funded by INGO and NGO projects. The organisation also earns revenue from digital outlets. “Besides, we also take stringless donations. Our founders also donate to the organisation,” said Chowdhury.
The Rumor Scanner team said: “Now, we need more funding to work on more stories and create video stories. We already have capabilities but do not have the funding. We also want to conduct workshops in universities and districts about media literacy and fact-checking. We also have a plan to introduce campus ambassadors to all the educational institutions to help us find the right information. We need to secure funds for that.”
The Rumor Scanner website has updated their expenses and inflows till 2022. The Rumor Scanner team told Dhaka Tribune that their audit for 2023 and 2024 is still ongoing, and they will upload it to the website when it is done.
Journalism and facts
Investigative reporter Badruddoza Babu said: “The visible truth in front of us may not be fact.” He remarked: “A fact is a result of a long investigation. A journalist should look for facts. The visible truth in front of us may not be the fact. Thus, which
is fact and which is not is a result of a long investigation.”
Babu remarked, one can not do investigative journalism with a single source. “The source may act for their benefit and can provide fake documents to pursue his or her interest,” he added.
Babu said: “Everything needs to be considered with the context. If the context does not come with the incident, verifying the truth is not possible. And to present an incident, one needs to gather the individuals and documents. Then, one can be closer to the fact.”
Media and misinformation
“Media houses live for their credibility. They do not live on the number of news they deliver,” said Babu.
“But many media houses do not understand this. Many times, they are harming themselves by doing click bait journalism,” he added.
According to him, the first responsibility of the media houses is to deliver authentic information.
As the mainstream outlets are republishing the findings of Rumor Scanner, Chowdhury has both positive and negative feelings around it. He thinks the media has the power to reach more people. “However, some of the outlets are using misleading headlines; these are embarrassing for us,” he added.
Rumor Scanner publishes yearly reports of false information in the media. According to Chowdhury, the trend of publishing articles with false information is getting lower.
