The Normal Elections are set to happen in Bangladesh tomorrow (February 12), and the social media platform Fb has grow to be a battleground for disinformation within the nation, with fabricated quotes, doctored pictures and deceptive photocards circulating extensively.
False statements attributed to political leaders are searching for to impress outrage, whereas unrelated pictures are getting used to create the phantasm of overseas backing or geopolitical rigidity.
On the similar time, AI‑generated visuals are being deployed to border political figures in staged eventualities, together with fabricated conferences and conspiracy theories.
Consultants have warned that these techniques might gas partisan hostility and form public opinion forward of the February election, as many citizens are uncovered to pretend information.
Dr Din M Sumon Rahman, Head of Media Research and Journalism on the College of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), stated, “The principle intention behind a disinformation marketing campaign is to govern voting alternative. Disinformation neatly feeds the affirmation bias of a determined voter’s alternative.”
The important thing goal of disinformation are swing voters, he stated.
“Voters who do not know whom to vote for, do not have a robust opinion, are supplied with disinformation that influences them to vote for a sure political get together. On this course of, they use faith, violence and plenty of different points for provocation,” added Sumon, additionally founding editor of fact-checking group FactWatch.
In a single month from mid-December 2025 to mid-January 2026, The Day by day Star documented 220 instances of disinformation circulated by varied party-aligned actors.
Entities that seem to assist Jamaat-i-Islami high the checklist, with half of the documented situations of disinformation (96) coming from them inside this restricted dataset. The Awami League-aligned teams adopted with 78, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP)-aligned actors 38.
Collectively, these 220 posts obtained over 2 million engagements (likes, feedback, and shares) inside the first 24 hours after they have been revealed, exhibiting how briskly such content material can attain voters.
Jamaat-aligned entities dominate the engagement share, accounting for greater than 1.8 million interactions (90.68 p.c). The AL and the BNP-aligned actors path far behind with 5.13pc and three.57pc of the full engagement, respectively.
Concentrating on rivals
Information present that disinformation within the election season isn’t random noise however a deliberate tactic geared toward political rivals.
Findings present the Jamaat-aligned entities directed 4 out of each 5 (78pc) items of disinformation on the BNP, as soon as an ally however now the principle political rival. These posts aggressively framed BNP and its management as extortionists and criminals, making an attempt to place Jamaat because the morally superior different.
For instance, Uttorbongo Tvwhich launched an AI video that includes a staged interview with an elephant handler who falsely claimed the BNP was the “actual extortionist.”
BNP-aligned actors countered in equal measures, concentrating on Jamaat with 80pc of their disinformation marketing campaign.
These contents regularly questioned Jamaat’s Islamic credentials and portrayed the get together as a risk to the Hindus.
In the meantime, professional‑Awami League entities largely focused the interim authorities and scholar coordinators. Examples embrace a extensively shared declare that Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus was plotting a civil warfare.
Throughout the political divides, defamation was the dominant weapon. Of the 220 items of documented disinformation, 155 have been categorized as defamatory. Practically 90pc of all defamatory content material unfold by Jamaat-aligned entities focused the BNP, whereas nearly all defamatory content material from BNP-aligned actors targeted on Jamaat.
Each side accused one another of criminality.
On December 21, 2025, a excessive‑engagement put up falsely alleged that BNP Secretary Normal Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and his brother ran a multimillion‑taka scheme to smuggle Awami League leaders throughout the border. However there was no proof supplied in opposition to the declare.
Jamaat-aligned actors additionally promoted conspiracy narratives, saying the BNP is keen to compromise nationwide pursuits for Indian favor, together with a fabricated story that Tarique Rahman had agreed to not buy weapons with out India’s permission.
BNP-aligned pages attacked with their very own “moral-corruption” narratives, together with a fabricated put up accusing Chhatra Shibir activists of partying and consuming after inciting nationwide unrest over Osman Hadi’s killing.
Professional‑Awami League actors, in the meantime, targeted on undermining scholar coordinators, Jamaat, and the interim authorities. One put up falsely claimed that scholar coordinators attended a DJ get together after Osman Hadi’s funeral.
Techniques employed
Practically 59pc of the analyzed posts have been manipulative content material, which twisted fact right into a false narrative.
For instance, on January 5, 2026, BNP-aligned political analyst Maruf Mallick made one such put up, distorting the findings of the Fee of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. Though the official report said that the majority people nonetheless lacking have been from the BNP, Maruf reframed this to allege a “secret understanding” between the Awami League and Jamaat-Shibir, claiming detainees linked to Jamaat had been quietly launched.
This sample was widespread. Of the 62 manipulative posts pushed by Jamaat-aligned entities, 48 focused the BNP, whereas professional‑BNP actors produced 18 such posts, nearly all geared toward Jamaat.
Past outright fabrication, political actors additionally distort information by presenting info out of context. Not like fabrication, which depends on full falsehoods, decontextualisation manipulates genuine info to assemble a deceptive narrative.
Among the many content material analyzed, 27 posts fell into this class, the place actual statements or occasions have been reframed to serve partisan agendas. For instance, one video put up claimed to point out a scene the place a BNP chief harassed a freedom fighter. Nevertheless, the video seems to point out somebody asking one other particular person to alter his seat.
Entities that seem to assist the Awami League largely pushed narratives of minority persecution, exaggerating remoted incidents into claims of widespread violence, and invoking requires overseas intervention.
Medium used
Whereas movies stay the dominant automobile for disinformation, current patterns present the rising reputation of photocards. Of the 220 disinformation objects analyzed, 104 have been movies and 44 have been photocards.
Roughly one-third of the disinformation posts relied on solid paperwork or fabricated quotes, with 75 such situations recognized. These have been cut up evenly between pro-Jamaat and pro-Awami League pages and customers.
Deepfakes and different AI‑generated content material fashioned the second commonest class, totaling 58 documented instances.
Professional-Jamaat entities produced the very best quantity on this class with 27 situations, adopted by pro-BNP actors with 17, and pro-Awami League entities with 14.
Methodology
The 220 posts analyzed have been collected by monitoring a watchlist of 615 Fb pages and profiles recognized for spreading disinformation and hate speech. The watchlist was compiled by way of a rigorous, political party-blind choice course of involving handbook monitoring, focused key phrase searches, and cross-referencing with unbiased fact-checking sources.
Political alignment was assessed by manually reviewing the latest 30 posts of every actor earlier than knowledge assortment started in mid-December. No official get together hyperlinks have been examined.
Within the watchlist, 27.4pc appeared AL-aligned, 25.57pc Jamaat-aligned and 14.5 BNP-aligned. The others included Nationwide Citizen Get together, meme pages, unaffiliated content material creators and different overseas entities.
This text was initially published on The Day by day Star, an ANN associate of Daybreak. Header illustration through The Day by day Star.
