Cyber Disinformation Targets Durga Puja

Widespread allegations have surfaced regarding the deliberate dissemination of communal disinformation across digital spheres, where a homicide triggered by alleged fish theft was branded as a "jihadi murder," a fire in a Muslim trader's factory was framed as "arson on Hindu households," and outdated protest or vandalism clips were recirculated as "demands to ban Durga Puja." To counter this wave of communal disinformation—characterized by repurposing past incidents, common criminal acts, and recycled video footage with deceptive narratives—five leading fact-checking and digital investigation bodies in Bangladesh have mobilized: FactWatch, Rumor Scanner, BanglaFact, Dismislab, and The Dissent.

Compiled observations from these organizations reveal an escalated push of sensitive claims alleging minority persecution and idol desecration during Durga Puja. Fact-checkers noted that artificial tension is being stoked by attaching inflammatory captions to private disputes, historical fires, and past political violence. Experts emphasize that merely pulling down malicious posts or publishing isolated fact-checks is inadequate; a coordinated response across technological, administrative, and ground-level security sectors is imperative.

10–12 Claims Debunked in 72 Hours

According to compiled monitoring reports, an abnormal spike in inflammatory claims regarding attacks on minorities and temple desecration was detected on social platforms in the run-up to the festival. In response, verifying organizations initiated special monitoring on October 16. Within the first 72 hours (October 16–18), at least 10 to 12 major sensitive and coordinated hoaxes were conclusively debunked. An analysis of social media channels and digital archives up to October 21 indicates that the tally of verified puja-related disinformation claims has reached between 15 and 18, with significant circulation persisting in closed community networks and regional cross-border handles.

While political disinformation dominated previous months, deceptive narratives specifically engineered to trigger sectarian discord surged significantly around the festival. Fact-checkers identified four primary vectors: framing ordinary crimes as communal violence, falsely attaching religious identities to accidental fires, recycling historical unrest footage, and the unverified amplification of social media claims by select cross-border media outlets.

Rumor Scanner: Recycled Clashes and Criminal Incidents

Investigations by Rumor Scanner revealed that the fatal beating of a businessman named Kshitish Mondal over suspected fish theft in Tala, Satkhira, was virally portrayed as a "Hindu businessman killed by Muslim extremists." Rumor Scanner established that the incident was a penal offence stemming from an alleged theft, with co-accused individuals including Bishwanath Ghosh and Shimul Ghosh, who are themselves from the Hindu community. The findings showed no alignment with the communal angle propagated online.

The platform documented further instances of recycled footage. A video from October 2021 depicting a tenant dispute on the premises of the Sri Sri Radhagobinda Jiu Temple on Tipu Sultan Road in Old Dhaka was falsely recirculated as recent obstruction of puja rituals. Similarly, clips of idol vandalism from Chandpur dating back to 2021 were repurposed as recent events.

Additionally, past footage from April showing an attack and arson on a pir's shrine (darbar) in Kushtia was shared by certain accounts on X (formerly Twitter) with claims that a "Hindu temple was demolished in Bangladesh."

BanglaFact: Verifying Factory Fires and Protest Clips

BanglaFact, managed by the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB), traced a viral clip alleging that Hindu homes were set on fire in Chattogram. Their investigation confirmed that the clip showed a fire in Rangamati last August that gutted factories belonging to three Muslim businessmen, completely unrelated to attacks on minority homes.

BanglaFact also scrutinized a broadcast by Indian outlet Republic Bangla claiming nationwide protests were staged in Bangladesh demanding the halt of Durga Puja. BanglaFact revealed that the video dated back to 2024 and depicted a local demonstration in Sector 13 of Uttara, Dhaka, where locals sought to relocate a puja pandal from a designated Eidgah ground to an open field—not a movement to ban Durga Puja celebrations.

Furthermore, BanglaFact reviewed a list of alleged minority fatalities submitted by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council for the previous month. Their inquiries concluded that none of the documented fatalities were driven by communal motives, but were instead rooted in personal, land, and local disputes. The agency also debunked the video attributing the Kushtia shrine vandalism to temple destruction.

However, operational challenges within BanglaFact were identified. Relying largely on manual verification, its social media engagement remains concentrated on Facebook, with limited visibility on platforms like TikTok and X where false narratives spread rapidly. The deactivation of its Facebook page messenger feature also poses hurdles for crowd-sourced incident tips.

The Dissent: Identity Substitution Across Digital Networks

Digital footprint analyses by The Dissent revealed that a substantial volume of provocative visual material was artificially amplified through X and Telegram networks. In select cases, personal videos of house fires and property loss originally documented by a Muslim content creator, Asma Akhter, were stripped of context and reposted under headlines like "Brutal attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh."

Fact-checkers also debunked claims regarding Hindu students allegedly being barred from reading the Gita at a college in Rajshahi, identifying the underlying video as an outdated incident stemming from an unrelated dispute.

Sources and Transmission Tactics

Digital forensic researchers categorized the disinformation campaign into three primary operational vectors:

First, coordinated syndication via regional and cross-border networks. Analysts traced several active threads to Indian IP addresses alongside anonymous sockpuppet profiles on X and Facebook, though researchers stressed that individual accounts cannot be used to generalize entire geographic populations.

Second, decontextualization of historical media. Lacking fresh evidence of widespread violence, malicious networks repurposed footage from past political unrest, land conflicts, or previous years' celebrations under incendiary new captions.

Third, unverified reporting by regional media. Several regional outlets picked up unverified viral clips without ground verification, conferring undue mainstream legitimacy on fabricated stories.

FactWatch: Prioritizing Harmful Disinformation

As Bangladesh's first IFCN-certified signatory and an official third-party fact-checking partner of Meta, FactWatch continues its platform-level reviews. Prof. Dr. Sumon Rahman, Founder Editor of FactWatch and faculty member at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), stated:

"As Meta's third-party partner, FactWatch rates harmful and false information on Facebook. We maintain active communication with others working in this domain. While we did not launch an isolated special project for Durga Puja, we carry out verification through our regular randomized workflow. We do not run a separate project. Since independent initiatives can only inform the public, we monitor their outputs as well. Among the countless misinformations circulating across social media, we prioritize rating those that carry the highest risk of real-world harm."

Insights from Cyber Experts and Police

Highlighting that digital disinformation often spills into real-world violence, Tanvir Hassan Zoha, cyber security analyst, digital forensics expert, and prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal, emphasized that taking down posts is only half the battle:

"Merely removing posts is insufficient to counter disinformation. Deceptive framing—such as coupling old video footage with inflammatory claims—must be debunked rapidly with concrete evidence, while concurrently guaranteeing physical security on the ground. Legitimate reports of attacks must never be dismissed as rumors without investigation. Simultaneously, robust real-time coordination among law enforcement, local administrations, puja celebration committees, and independent fact-checkers is critical to delivering corrections directly on the platforms where falsehoods originate."

Addressing the contrast between automated cross-border botnets and Bangladesh's largely manual fact-checking operations, cyber security expert Nahid Hossain suggested building institutional interoperability:

"It is advantageous to link FactWatch's platform-level reach-mitigation, BanglaFact and Dismislab's deep investigations, Rumor Scanner's rapid alerts, and The Dissent's network analytics into a collaborative framework. This does not imply operating under a single hierarchy; rather, organizations can retain full editorial autonomy while routinely exchanging verified intelligence, investigative methodologies, and emerging threat vectors."

Hossain added that understanding transmission architecture is as crucial as identifying a false post:

"Identifying a fake post and decoding how it proliferates are two distinct tasks. Coordinated campaigns often push identical statements simultaneously across disparate accounts, alter captions on single source images, or disguise old recordings as current events. Looking strictly at the claim leaves the wider operation undetected; tracking origins, amplification vectors, and coordinated networks is indispensable."

Efforts to seek comment from relevant police divisions via formal messages and WhatsApp queries regarding cyber surveillance and legal measures against identified rumor networks yielded no response.

However, in an official post on October 20, Bangladesh Police addressed recent media reports citing 34 incidents of alleged temple vandalism, theft, and disruptions prior to Durga Puja submitted by the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and Mohanagar Sarbojonin Puja Committee. Police stated that extensive field reviews revealed most incidents stemmed from internal leadership feuds, opportunistic theft, local distribution disputes over state allocations, or isolated vandalism by mentally unstable persons. Police asserted that organized communal violence or deliberate disruptions aimed at curbing celebrations were not corroborated, citing specific investigated cases that had been misrepresented.

Kazi Mustafiz, President of the Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation, noted that protecting social harmony during sensitive events requires structural vigilance over ad-hoc measures. He urged citizens to verify timestamps, scrutinize original source media, refrain from blind resharing, and consult credible verification outlets before acting on sensational claims.

Technology analysts reiterate that an automated, transnational challenge cannot be dismantled through isolated, manual workflows. Synchronizing FactWatch's platform enforcement, BanglaFact and Dismislab's research rigor, Rumor Scanner's rapid alerting, and The Dissent's digital network mapping into a cohesive 'Digital Front' remains essential. Comprehensive digital defenses, administrative responsiveness, and collective technological infrastructure are key to shielding communal harmony from cyber aggression.

//DBTech/IH/SME/MVNO//