On June 5th of this year, the Bangladesh High Court annulled a 2018 government notification, effectively eliminating the quota system. This decision set off a chain of events that culminated in the fall of the government just two months later. However, even before this dramatic shift in power, violent clashes and widespread casualties had already come to the forefront. On August 5th, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation marked the end of the long rule of the Awami League government. In the three days following the government’s fall, various political attacks took place across the country, with numerous reports of killings, vandalism, arson, and looting emerging. Homes and places of worship belonging to different religious communities were also targeted. Amidst these events, the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) became a significant medium for the widespread dissemination of communal misinformation and disinformation.
Rumor Scanner’s Investigation Unit has identified 50 accounts on X that have been actively spreading communal narratives by sharing images, videos, and information related to recent events in Bangladesh. At least one post from each of these accounts has been found to promote communal misinformation and disinformation. From August 5th to 13th, these posts were viewed over 154 million times. Analysis by the Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit revealed that 72% of the accounts spreading fake and misleading information claimed to be based in India. Among the account holders are several responsible individuals, and even mainstream media outlets in India have propagated some of this false information.
Patterns of Communal Misinformation
On July 7th, five people were electrocuted during the Jagannath Dev’s Ratha Yatra in Bogura. A video of this incident was posted on August 9th from an X account in India, falsely claiming it depicted “hundreds of Hindu women being killed in a bomb attack by Jihadis at a camp in Bangladesh.” Of the 50 accounts examined in this research, 13 posts contained similar instances where unrelated events were given a communal twist.
The most prevalent form of misinformation involved misrepresenting Muslim individuals as Hindus. For example, a video featuring Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon was circulated with the false claim that she was a Hindu woman delivering an emotional speech in Bangladesh. Badhon herself publicly refuted this claim. The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit identified 17 other similar incidents, making this the most common type of misinformation, accounting for 36% of the total cases.
Other forms of misinformation included repurposing old videos from unrelated incidents, falsely attributing attacks on Muslim establishments to Hindu establishments, misrepresenting arson attacks on different sites as attacks on Hindu properties, distorting political slogans, fabricating statements, creating fake Telegram accounts in the name of the BNP, and making false claims about the number of Hindu casualties.
In 80% of the cases (40 posts), video footage was used to spread misinformation. Fifteen of these videos were from unrelated incidents predating August 5th, while the rest, though related to different events, were repurposed to fit the current communal narrative. In 16% of cases, images and screenshots were used, while the remaining 4% consisted of text-only posts.
The Propagation of Communal Propaganda by Over Fifty Accounts
The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit found that of the 50 X accounts disseminating communal misinformation about Bangladesh, 36 listed India as their location. Other listed locations included Hungary, the United Kingdom, Finland, the United States, Qatar, Sweden, Somalia, Thailand, and Bangladesh, with each of these locations being cited by one account. Five accounts did not mention any location.
These accounts have been consistently spreading communal narratives by sharing information, images, and videos related to recent events in Bangladesh. A long-term analysis reveals that these accounts have been spreading misinformation for several years, not just about Bangladesh but also about other South Asian countries. Consequently, these accounts have become well-known to fact-checkers in the region. The lack of effective fact-checking programs and weak community guidelines have allowed these accounts to continue spreading misinformation unchecked.
From Responsible Individuals to Media Outlets: The Spread of Misinformation
Recently, a video falsely claiming to show a Hindu man demanding information about his missing son was shared by at least three mainstream Indian media outlets on X: Asian News International (ANI), NDTV, and Mirror Now. However, Rumor Scanner verified that the man in question is Muslim. Babul Howlader has been seeking information about his missing son since 2013 and participated in a protest for this cause. Rumor Scanner found that several other Indian media outlets and individuals associated with them were involved in spreading similar communal misinformation. This list includes X accounts from Zee News Madhya Pradesh and News 24.

Nupur Sharma, the editor-in-chief of the well-known Indian media outlet OpIndia, has been regularly spreading communal misinformation related to recent events in Bangladesh through her X account, according to the findings of the Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit. After one of her posts was identified as false and flagged by a Rumor Scanner team member on August 11th, she responded by blocking that particular member on X.
Evidence of communal misinformation spreading is not limited to India alone but extends to responsible individuals from various other countries. Salwan Momika, an Iraqi-born man who has repeatedly caused controversy by publicly burning the Quran, has been found to regularly spread communal misinformation involving Bangladesh through his X account. Additionally, former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria shared a video on his X account falsely claiming that cricketer Liton Das’s house had been set on fire. In reality, the footage was from an arson attack on Mashrafe’s house, and no such incident occurred at Liton’s residence.
The Motives Behind Communal Misinformation
As of the publication of this report, there have been no confirmed reports from credible sources of communal deaths related to the recent events in Bangladesh. However, it is true that several incidents of communal violence have occurred across the country. The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit has observed the widespread dissemination of communal misinformation on X, often using unrelated footage and exaggerating incidents to create a broader narrative of communal violence.
The rapid spread of communal propaganda on X in such a short time is unprecedented in recent years. Minhaj Aman, Research-Lead at the online verification and media research platform Dismislab, shares a similar view. In a conversation with Rumor Scanner, he said, “Even during the 2021 incident in Cumilla, where a Quran was placed under a temple idol, there was significant discussion on Facebook and Twitter. At that time, fake news was also circulated, which was debunked by fact-checkers in Bangladesh. However, the scale of misinformation this time seems to be far greater.”
Rumor Scanner believes that the extensive amount of online content related to recent events in Bangladesh over the past month has created fertile ground for these X accounts to spread misinformation. Since mid-July, countless videos of protests, attacks, and deaths have been posted online, making it easy for these accounts to repurpose them into communal narratives.
Rumor Scanner asked Indian fact-checker Ankita Deshkar why there has been an increase in communal propaganda in India recently. Ankita explained, “These accounts receive significant engagement from their followers when they post communal misinformation. Many are sharing this misinformation on X to boost their engagement or retweet numbers.”
Ankita also suggested that the growing number of “older” individuals joining social media might be another reason for the increase in communal propaganda. For them, this is a new experience, and they may inadvertently engage with or retweet such content because it is presented as distressing.
Another Indian fact-checker, Yusha Rahman, told Rumor Scanner that the primary drivers of this misinformation are religious extremists. They see communal propaganda as a way to promote an anti-Muslim narrative.
Minhaj Aman believes that the problem is not confined to India; Europe also has a high amount of misinformation on Twitter (now X), which was highlighted in a study last year. Minhaz attributes this to the “weaknesses in Twitter (X)’s content moderation. Additionally, the platform’s fact-checking policy and flagging process are still not effective enough, leading to its widespread misuse by users. The recent flood of communal misinformation between India and Bangladesh is the latest example of this.”