A recent report reveals a surge of disinformation on the social media platform X, falsely claiming that Hindus in Bangladesh are being persecuted and subjected to Islamic rule and oppression. The misinformation campaign includes the creation of new accounts, with the rate of account openings reportedly increasing by 214% since October.
According to a report published on December 10 by the Tech Global Institute, titled “The Anatomy of Disinformation on X”, hashtags like #SaveHindusInBangladesh and #BangladeshiHinduGenocide have been widely used in posts targeting Bangladesh over the last 110 days. Approximately 27% of the misinformation claims that a “genocide against Hindus” is underway in the country, while 21% presents distorted data.
The report states that this wave of disinformation follows the ousting of the Awami League government through a popular uprising and adopts tactics often seen in disinformation campaigns originating from Russia and China. Many of the accounts spreading this content are believed to be operated by Indian or Indian-origin users, as well as non-Indians interested in South Asian geopolitics.
These accounts reportedly mimic strategies used by troll farms and keyboard armies in Russia, Israel, and China to run coordinated campaigns. The majority of this misinformation—77%—was posted on X, while 35% was shared across X, Facebook, and YouTube. Additionally, 71% of the misleading content was distributed via messaging platforms such as Viber, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Verified accounts played a significant role, with 74% of them posting false information.
Prominent hashtags like #SaveHindusInBangladesh and #BangladeshiHinduGenocide were among the top 20 used in these campaigns. Some posts used altered or irrelevant images to create a false narrative, including a case where a photo of a mentally ill man was falsely labeled as a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and linked to an alleged declaration of Sharia law in Bangladesh.
Fact-checkers in Bangladesh have debunked numerous claims. For instance, a widely shared claim on October 13 from an account named Radharamn Das suggested that two Hindu women were brutally killed after returning from Durga Puja festivities. In reality, Bangladeshi media later confirmed that the two students, Puja Biswas and Ratna Saha, died from alcohol poisoning.
Similarly, a post from November 6 claimed that 50 Hindus were killed or injured in Chittagong’s Hazari Goli during an attack by Jamaat and the military. However, fact-checkers clarified that only a few people were injured during a protest, with no deaths reported.
Oxford University Visiting Policy Fellow Subhanaz Rashid Dia shared the report on Facebook, stating, “Social media platforms are being used to spread religious and communal disinformation and incitement in Bangladesh.”
The report highlights how disinformation campaigns utilize fabricated narratives, misleading images, and verified accounts to propagate false claims, drawing parallels with tactics used by state-backed entities in other parts of the world.
