On 25th June 2022 the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina, inaugurated the long-awaited Padma bridge, the country’s longest bridge that is entirely built with domestic funding.
The 6.15-km-long road-rail four-lane bridge is built over the Padma River connecting southwestern Bangladesh with the capital and other parts. The multipurpose road-rail bridge, which is fully funded by the Bangladesh government, has been constructed at a cost of $3.6 billion. Amid inauguration of newly built Padma Bridge a social media user shared a post from ‘Ekattor News’ claiming that “During the inauguration, the bridge collapsed and 20 people including the mayor were injured”.
(Screenshot from Facebook post)
(English translation of the original post)
Debunked Source
Fact Check
In order to verify the claim, we searched for keywords “During the inauguration, the bridge collapsed”. Our search revealed that the bridge collapsed in Mexico, not in Bangladesh. Ekattor Facebook Page posted an incomplete headline creating confusion between the masses as many people assumed the incident happened in Bangladesh amid inauguration of Padma Bridge. We also found a news article from the ‘Ekattor News’ website with the same headline.
(Screenshot from Ekattor TV website)
Source
Rating
Misleading/False Context
Conclusion
Our fact-check confirmed that Ekattor News used an incomplete headline without mentioning the country name where the incident took place which created chaos among the general public.
ABCDE Framework-Based Analysis
| Actor | National media outlets with a huge number of followers are involved in spreading hoaxes. |
| Behavior | Misleading false claim was made through social media accounts to give an impression of bad governance. |
| Content | Social Media posts, web articles. |
| Degree | The targeted audience were Bengalis; the purpose was to create distress among residents. The news and pictures of bridge collapse were not forged, but it never took place in Bangladesh. Incident from Mexico was reported on the inauguration day of Padma bridge which misled people. |
| Effect | False claims and hoaxes are misleading the general public and creating chaos. |