Fake Flagging Foiled: Meta Restores Osman Hadi’s Facebook Page

The verified Facebook page of Shaheed Osman Sharif Hadi was temporarily disabled after being falsely reported as “militant” through coordinated bot activity. In addition, several users who shared videos from his page also lost access to their own pages and content due to the same mass-reporting campaign.

However, following immediate communication with Meta, the affected pages were restored within 48 hours. From the night of Sunday, December 28, Osman Hadi’s official Facebook page has been fully reactivated. It has also been learned that others who lost their pages for the same reason are now regaining access after submitting appeals.

Cyber forensic expert Tanvir Hasan Joha said that Hadi’s official Facebook page was taken down after being tagged as militant. Those who shared his videos faced similar action. He added that after the Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, contacted Meta through the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and informed them of Hadi’s status as a martyr, Meta restored the page the very next day. According to Joha, all affected pages and IDs are now being reinstated. Hadi’s main page had been disabled but is now enabled, and pending appeals are expected to be approved as well.

It is worth noting that an organized group has been regularly reporting content related to the July movement and real-life videos from that period by falsely labeling them as violent or militant. As part of this campaign, mass militant reports led to the disabling of the Facebook page of Osman Sharif Hadi, a Bangladesh-leaning figure and spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha, over posts related to him.

At the same time, a video of his recitation of a rebellious poem disappeared from the Chief Adviser’s official Facebook page. Former interim government adviser Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan also reportedly lost his page after posting about Hadi.

DBTech/MI/OB/OR