A Facebook Page shared a picture on 15^th April, 2022, showing a woman writing “Sheikh Hasina is a Vote Thief” in Bengali language on a chart. The post was shared multiple times on social media platforms which ignited a new debate amongst her supporters and the opposition party supporters.

Debunked Source

https://www.facebook.com/kazi.asad.3705/posts/1574400906279314

https://www.facebook.com/jcd4554/posts/290441249930201

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1196898724048358&id=100011847255254

Fact Check

Using AI assisted tools we did a reverse image search and found that the picture dates back to 14^th April, 2014 taken on an occasion of Bengali New Year; Bangabda.

The original picture was taken on the eve of Bengali new year, the last month of the year is called “Chaitra” and as per Hindu calendar the day is considered as Sankranti of Mahavishnu, on this day Hindus also perform holy bath. The original picture was edited and ‘Chaitra Sankranti’ was replaced with “Sheikh Hasina is a vote thief”.

During forensic analysis of the image, discarded Adobe profile was also found in the edited image.

Source

https://ishanerpunjomegh.blogspot.com/2017/04/blog-post_14.html

https://archive.womeneye24.com/3849

https://www.independent24.com/details/78273/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%20%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%A4%20%E0%A6%89%E0%A7%8E%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AC%20%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%88%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%20%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%20%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%9C

Rating

Misinformation/Propaganda

Conclusion

Our research confirmed that the picture is being shared with a false context to malign the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Hasina Sheikh. It was a misleading post to accuse Hasina Sheikh for vote theft and defame her.

ABCDE Framework-Based Analysis

Actor	Facebook page with huge number of followers is disseminating fake news against the current prime minister of Bangladesh; Sheikh Hasina.
Behavior	An old picture which was taken on eve of Bengali new year was edited, the original text was replaced with “Sheikh Hasina is a vote thief.”
Content	Facebook post.
Degree	The target      audience of this post was Bengali and other people, the purpose of disseminating this fake news was to portray Sheikh Hasina a vote thief.
Effect	The post caused anger among supporters and followers of Sheikh Hasina and gave birth to heated argument between her supporters and opposition supporters.