Deepfake video targeting Gaibandha-1 candidate surfaces on Facebook

On the day of the National Election 2024, a fabricated video surfaced on Facebook featuring Nahid Niger, an independent candidate for the Gaibandha-1 seat, announcing her withdrawal from the election. Subsequent verification by Dismislab, an online platform specialising in media research and verification, confirmed that the video was a product of AI-based deepfake technology.

In the manipulated footage, Nahid Niger was seen proclaiming her decision to step back from the electoral race. The caption accompanying the video asserted that Niger withdrew from the election under the directive of the Hon'ble Prime Minister.

Additionally, the video suggested that Shamim Haider Patwary, a Member of Parliament from Gaibandha-1 affiliated with the Jatiya Party, was her new replacement. The video urged voters to redirect their support from Niger to Patwari and cast votes for the plough symbol.

Dismislab's analysis revealed discrepancies in the lip-syncing of the deepfake video, highlighting inconsistencies between the spoken words and the visual representation. Furthermore, the report emphasised a noticeable disparity between Nahid Nigar's authentic voice and speech pattern compared to those presented in the manipulated video. The image employed in creating the deepfake was reportedly sourced from Nigar's Facebook profile.

Following the virality of the deepfake, both Facebook pages officially associated with Nahid Niger promptly addressed the situation earlier today, debunking the false claims propagated by the deepfake and confirming Niger's continued participation in the election.

Dismislab's report also mentioned that the Facebook page responsible for circulating the deceptive video was quite new despite having the same name and likeliness of an older page, with only four likes at the time of the above screenshot, and lacked the verification status typically associated with legitimate pages.

The video and the page it sourced from is currently unavailable at the time of writing.