A video has recently been circulated on social media claiming that interim government Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed endorses a “government investment platform that guarantees an income of 121,000 BDT per week! Invest 30,000 Bangladeshi Taka today and receive your first payment in your bank account tomorrow.”. The video features the logo of online news outlet bdnews24.com.
See the post circulated on Facebook making the claim here (Archived).
Fact Check
Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation reveals that Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed has not made any statements inviting investment or guaranteeing income through any so-called government investment platform. In reality, a video of him speaking on a different topic has been digitally manipulated using technology to create the circulated video.
As part of the investigation, a video titled “Reform priorities for Bangladesh’s interim government, with Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed” was found on the Atlantic Council’s YouTube channel, published on October 24, 2024. Visual similarities between this original video and the circulated one can be observed.
According to the video description, during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, Bangladesh’s interim government Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed discussed his plans for the country’s economy with Mriganka Bhusari, Associate Director at the Geoeconomics Center.
Subsequent analysis of the audio reveals that the circulated video’s audio differs from the original video published in 2024.
Reviewing the fake video suggests that Salehuddin Ahmed’s speech patterns appear artificial. Observation of multiple videos of him speaking shows a different speaking style. To confirm this, the audio clip was analyzed using the AI detection website Resemble AI, which labeled the audio as “Fake”.
Additionally, another AI detection platform, Hive Moderation, found that while the video clip appeared genuine, the audio clip was identified as almost 100% AI-generated.
It is noteworthy that a review of online news outlet bdnews24’s Facebook page, website, and YouTube channel yielded no related news or information supporting the circulated claim.
Conclusion
Therefore, the video claiming to show Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed recommending investment in a so-called government platform is edited.
Sources
- Atlantic Council – Reform priorities for Bangladesh’s interim government, with Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed
- Resemble AI – Website
- Hive Moderation – Website
- bdnews24 – Facebook Page
- bdnews24 – Website
- bdnews24 – YouTube
