Fake videos targeting BNP resurfacing on social media: reports

A distorted video featuring a speech by Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has once again surfaced on Facebook, raising concerns about the spread of misinformation during the upcoming election. The video, created by adding together different portions of a speech delivered by Khaleda Zia in London back in 2015, resurfaced on social media platforms despite being fact-checked by three different fact-checking organisations in 2021 and 2022.

The misleading video has been circulated annually since 2018, recently gained prominence as it began to be distributed through Facebook advertisements. The distorted content presents Khaleda Zia making statements about her party's movement, her son Tarique Rahman, and her daughter-in-law. The video suggests internal family conflicts, with captions insinuating corruption and power struggles within the family.

The misleading video was promoted on the Facebook page 'বর্ণিল নবাবগঞ্জ-Bornil Nobabgonj' from November 26 to December 1, reaching at least 70-80 thousand people according to a report by Dismislab, an online verification and media research platform.

Regarding this fake video, Md. Tohidul Islam, Research officer of Dismislab told The Daily Star, "As a fact-checker, after watching the video, one would wonder about its authenticity. As such, I searched on Facebook with the caption of the resurfacing reel. A few more videos were also found in my search." 

Tohidul explained that after he had done keyword search, different news reports of 2018 had been found as well. He added that he was also able to find reports of individual fact-checking organisations. "It is clear that even in a sensitive situation like election, the video has been re-circulated to serve a specific purpose despite being fact checked thrice," said the professional fact-checker.

While talking about the time and tools regarding fact checking Tohidul commented that fake videos are found by keyword searching on different platforms. To verify a story the amount of time depends on fact-checking the topic and related issues regarding it. Sometimes it takes less and sometimes it takes a lot of time. Since the videos were already fact-checked, there was no need for a separate video verification. However, we use other tools including InVid to fact-check any video. 

This circulation of fake video is not isolated as similar incidents distorting Khaleda Zia's speeches have been observed by Boom Bangladesh, another fact checking organisation. 

The recurrence of such manipulated content suggests the challenges in combating false narratives and misinformation on social media platforms, with some instances evolving from regular posts to targeted advertisements, allowing the misleading content to reach a wider audience. Recently, some more politically targeted videos resurfaced on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok. Some of these videos were taken down after being reported.

Meanwhile, videos generated by using artificial intelligence (AI) have also been circulating online with recent revelations exposing HeyGen, a Los Angeles-based AI video generator company. According to investigations by the British daily The Financial Times, an independent news site named BD Politico has been distributing a video featuring 'Edward', an AI-generated news anchor showcased in HeyGen's promotional material. This video falsely accuses US diplomats of meddling in Bangladesh's elections and inciting political unrest, shedding light on the potential misuse of AI-generated content for spreading misinformation and false narratives. 

The incident involving a deep fake video erroneously portraying BNP leader Tarique Rahman, which was subsequently taken down by Meta following the Financial Times inquiry, along with AI-generated content targeting BNP's youth wing leader Rashed Iqbal Khan, highlights the challenges in tackling these complex issues regarding the spread of misinformation.