Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has remained controversial in Bangladesh since 1981 with allegations of Pakistan backed militancy and corruption accused by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
Recently, the BNP received hate on social media when a Facebook user posted a video claiming Chairman Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tareq Rahman, chanted “Pakistan Zindabad” slogan during his speech. Several pro-Awami League accounts have made this claim.
When data was retrieved, the post was shared 60 times with 47 comments.
Debunked Source
https://www.facebook.com/100055334210643/videos/5005922746171798/
https://www.facebook.com/100014838585079/videos/429618991928955/
Fact Check
In order to investigate the claim we extracted key frames of the posted video and did a reverse image search.
We found a 24 minutes long video uploaded by official YouTube channel of Bangladesh Nationalist Party on 28th March 2017 with title “মহান স্বাধীনতা দিবসের আলোচনা সভায় দেশনায়ক তারেক রহমানের বক্তব্য” “Statement of Tareq Rahman in the discussion meeting of the great Independence Day”.
After his long speech, at 42:20 minutes Tariq Rehman can be heard saying “Allah Hafiz, Bangladesh Zindabad, BNP Zindabad”.
Source
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNSHS-YrhAk
Rating
Misinformation/Propaganda
Conclusion
Our research confirmed that viral clip of BNP’s chairman which attracted hate on social media was doctored, the original voice was edited. In his speech he did not mention ‘Pakistan’, the word ‘Bangladesh’ was replaced with ‘Pakistan’. Thus, the statement made by the current acting chairman of the BNP, Tareq Rahman, from 27th March 2017, in The Royal Regency, London has been edited, distorted and propagated through social media, which is misleading and false.
ABCDE Framework-Based Analysis
| Actor | Independent social media account is spreading misinformation against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party across social media platforms. |
| Behavior | A doctored video is shared widely on the internet to defame BNP’s chairman for chanting slogan in favor of Pakistan in his speech. |
| Content | Social media posts. |
| Degree | Synthetic means were used to doctor the video, the original voice was edited and video was forged to defame the chairman and the cause of Bangladesh nationalist party. It can be a part of ongoing propaganda by Sheikh Hasina’s followers and supporters to defame the rival party by making them look bad and turn people’s sentiments against them. |
| Effect | The viral doctored video of BNP’s chairman is affecting the credibility of him as political leader and his party and disregarding his intentions for the country. Such posts are attracting hate towards BNP and effecting its popularity. |