Introducing Online misinformation is rampant during Bangladesh's general election on Thursday.
(Dhaka, February 9) Bangladeshi voters will elect a new government on Thursday, February 12, but analysts warn that voters’ choices are threatened by a coordinated and organized wave of disinformation, much of which originates from neighboring India.
AFP reports that the Muslim-majority country of approximately 170 million people is preparing for its first election since a student-led uprising in 2024 ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina subsequently fled to neighboring India and has been under the protection of a Hindu nationalist government.
Authorities say the scale of online manipulation, including sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) generated images, has become so serious that a dedicated department has been established to curb disinformation.
When Bangladesh’s interim leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus called UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Gürki in January seeking help, he said that at the time “there was a deluge of misinformation surrounding the election.”
He said, "This information comes from both foreign media and local sources."
Much of the news revolves around attacks against ethnic minorities in Bangladesh, where approximately 10% of the population is non-Muslim, the majority of whom are Hindu.
This led to a surge of online claims about attacks on Hindus, accompanied by the use of the hashtag "Hindu genocide."
According to data released by the police in January, only 12% of the 645 incidents involving minority members that are projected to occur in 2025 will be determined to be sectarianly motivated.
On December 21, 2025, near the Raju Memorial Sculpture at Dhaka University, students covered with black cloths and held placards in a silent protest condemning the lynching of Hindu garment worker Das. (Photo from AFP archives)
India is colluding to spread disinformation.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate, based in the United States, said it tracked more than 700,000 posts from more than 170,000 accounts on the social media platform X, claiming that a “Hindu genocide” occurred between August 2024 and January 2026.
The think tank's director, Naik, said: "We have tracked down coordinated disinformation dissemination by India online, falsely claiming that large-scale violence against Hindus has occurred in Bangladesh."
He told AFP: "More than 90% of the content comes from India, and the rest is related to Hindu nationalist networks in the UK, the US and Canada."
Examples debunked by AFP's fact-checking department include an AI-generated video in which a woman who has lost an arm appeals to people not to vote for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which many consider the frontrunner in the election. Some of these examples have been shared tens of thousands of times.
In another computer-generated video, a Hindu woman claims that people of the same religion are told they must vote for the Jamaat-e-Islami (Bangladesh's main Islamic party) or they will be exiled to India.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) President Rahman prepares to speak at a campaign rally in Dhaka on Sunday ahead of the national elections. (Photo courtesy of AFP)
AFP's fact-checking team documented hundreds of AI-generated videos on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, but only a few of them included AI-generated disclaimers.
This surge also occurred after years of repression under Hasina's rule, when the opposition was suppressed and outspoken voices were silenced.
“We have noticed a surge in the amount of misinformation compared to the past,” said Chaudhry, head of the Dhaka-based Digitally Right research institute, adding that free artificial intelligence tools have made it easier to create sophisticated misinformation.
In another AI-generated video, some Bangladeshis appear to be praising Hasina—now a fugitive sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity.
In India, Hindu fundamentalists expressed strong dissatisfaction on social media with comments made by the only Bangladeshi cricketer in the Indian Premier League (IPL), leading his club to cancel his contract. This incident ultimately resulted in the Bangladeshi national team withdrawing from the T20 World Cup held in India this month.
Although analysts point out that much of the misinformation originated in India, there is no evidence that the large-scale media campaign was orchestrated by the government.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that they have documented a disturbing pattern of “repeated attacks by extremists against ethnic minorities in Bangladesh,” but also emphasized that they “consistently reaffirm their support for free, fair, inclusive and credible elections.”
Bangladesh National Election Commission spokesman Malik said they are working with Facebook's parent company Meta and have set up a department to monitor social media posts, but dealing with the massive amount of online information is a never-ending task.
Malik said, "If our team detects any harmful or misleading content, we immediately flag it as fake news."
On February 7, Bangladeshi workers loaded empty ballot boxes onto trucks outside the Dhaka Election Commission building. (Photo courtesy of AFP)
The public lacks awareness of verifying information.
Election expert and former election commission official Tuli said that AI-generated images pose an additional risk to Bangladesh.
Government statistics show that more than 80% of urban households own at least one smartphone, and the figure is close to 70% in rural areas, but many people are still relatively unfamiliar with the technology.
"This is a huge threat to countries like Bangladesh because people lack the awareness to verify information," Tuli said.
"Voters are easily misled when making decisions due to fake images generated by artificial intelligence."