Fake videos flood YouTube channels in Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi YouTube space is flooded with "cheapfake" talk shows and single-host videos that mislead viewers with disinformation, according to a research report released by Dismislab yesterday.

A cheapfake refers to manipulated media -- videos, images, or audio -- altered using basic and widely accessible editing tools.

Dismislab reviewed 288 videos and found that all used the same tactic -- slicing real interviews out of context to manufacture moments that never happened. Most are stitched-together clips from YouTube, TV shows, Facebook Lives, and stolen audio recordings.

Each video averaged around 12,000 views.

In total, the videos featured 58 political figures, journalists, and talk show hosts. They often used clickbait headlines, misleading thumbnails, and distorted quotes from guests, the report said.

Dismislab found that 20 of the 29 channels posting these videos were created after Bangladesh's political transition in August 2024.

About 90 percent of the videos carried advertisements, indicating that both the content creators and YouTube were profiting from the disinformation.

Roughly 40 percent of the videos targeted the interim government, while 20 percent went after the National Citizen Party. BNP and Awami League were each targeted in about 10 percent of the videos.

Across social media, fact-checking organisations published 1,326 fact-check reports since the beginning of 2025. Nearly half of these countered political misinformation, while 13 percent focused on religion. Disinformation related to crime and public safety rose sevenfold during the same period, said the report.

The analysis found that AL remained central to Bangladesh's disinformation landscape, both as a source and a target. About 68 percent of the false claims portrayed the party or its leaders in a favourable light.

In contrast, nearly all misinformation about the interim government and other political parties had a negative tone, the report stated.

"Much of the fact-checked misinformation around AL involved old or unrelated protest footage, falsely shared as recent rallies," the report said.

Other false narratives claimed that Sheikh Hasina had met UN and EU delegations in New Delhi, where she had taken shelter after her ouster, or that she would meet world leaders elsewhere, the report stated.

Student movement coordinators were among the hardest-hit by misinformation campaigns.

Dismislab found that at least three female student leaders were targeted with doctored images falsely depicting them in sexually explicit situations.

Mass media outlets also contributed to spreading political misinformation.

The volume of such misinformation "surged" in early 2025, said Dismislab.