With elections fast approaching, there is genuine hope among Bangladeshis that this time there will be no boycotts and that we will all be able to vote in a truly participatory election.
It is for this reason that recent reports of fake news websites infiltrating into our cyberspace are particularly concerning.
It has been observed that clones of several popular news websites in Bangladesh -- including Bangla Tribune, Prothom Alo, and BBC Bangla -- have appeared, disseminating outright false political news, and threatening to put a dent on all the efforts that the government, opposition parties, and the Election Commission have made in ensuring a free and fair election.
What is especially worrisome is that not only are these fake news-sites disseminating misinformation, but that they are masquerading as popular and respected news-sites to do so. The danger here is two-fold: The first is that by doing so they will give their fake news the imprimatur of credibility, and the second is that, as people learn to distrust their news, they will start to distrust news from the legitimate sites they are masquerading as.
The upshot will be an unholy mess that will only serve to muddy the waters of what is true and what is false, and will lead to a loss of confidence in media across the board -- which is exactly what the purveyors of misinformation want.
We cannot allow this to happen. The cost to our society and polity would be incalculable.
In the recent past, we have seen cyber-attacks and the proliferation of fake news make significant adverse impacts on other democracies -- most notably, the meddling of outside parties during the 2016 US elections, and also that of the Brexit referendum in the UK.
It is imperative that we do not treat this issue lightly -- combating fake news and nefarious cyber activity aiming at influencing our politics, needs to be made a top priority in the run-up to the elections.
We owe it to the people of Bangladesh to neutralize this new challenge as effectively and as quickly as possible. It is not too much to say that the health of our democracy depends on it.
