X - major misinformation source on communal violence in Bangladesh: Rumor Scanner

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has been identified as a major platform for spreading misinformation about communal violence in Bangladesh, as per a recent report by Rumor Scanner, a Bangladeshi fact-checking organisation. The investigation identified 50 accounts in X responsible for promoting misleading content that reached over 154 million views between August 5 and 13.

According to Rumour Scanner, 72% of these accounts claimed to be based in India, with some linked to prominent individuals and mainstream media outlets. These accounts are reported to have played a significant role in fueling communal tensions by distorting facts, misrepresenting people, and recycling unrelated videos and images to fit inflammatory narratives.

One striking example highlighted by the report involved a video posted on August 9. The footage, originally from a tragic electrocution incident during the Jagannath Dev's Ratha Yatra in Bogura on July 7, was falsely circulated as evidence of a bomb attack on Hindu women in Bangladesh. 13 other posts similarly twisted unrelated incidents to serve divisive agendas, says Rumor Scanner.

The most common type of misinformation identified in the report involved falsely portraying Muslim individuals as Hindus. In one case, a video of Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon was misrepresented as a Hindu woman delivering a heartfelt speech. Badhon later publicly debunked the claim. However, misrepresentation of this nature accounted for 36% of the false narratives documented by Rumour Scanner.

The report also found that video content was the primary medium for spreading misinformation in X, with 80% of the misleading posts relying on video footage. Many of these videos were unrelated to the events in Bangladesh but were repurposed to stoke communal fears, suggests the investigation. Other tactics included using old images, fabricating statements, and creating fake social media accounts in the names of political figures.

Mainstream Indian media outlets such as Asian News International (ANI), NDTV, and Mirror Now were also implicated in spreading false information, says Rumor Scanner. In one instance, a video of a Muslim man searching for his missing son was falsely portrayed as a Hindu man's plea. The investigation further identified individuals like Nupur J Sharma, the editor-in-chief of OpIndia, as well as international figures such as Salwan Momika and former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria, as contributors to the spread of similar disinformation.