‘Counter narrative’ to be promoted against cyber propaganda.

The government has decided to promote a ‘counter narrative’ against provocative cyber propaganda that is creating instability in the country. A decision was taken in this regard at the 7th meeting of the Law and Order Advisory Council. To implement this decision, a letter was sent from the Police Headquarters to all police units on February 27. A report on the activities taken as per the letter has also been asked to be submitted to the Police Headquarters by March 8.

It was decided at the 7th meeting of the Law and Order Advisory Council on February 19 that a ‘counter narrative’ will be prepared to control untrue and baseless audio and video propaganda on various social media and the countrymen will be informed through the spokesperson of each department or organization. In addition, the law and order forces have been asked to be alert and proactive so that anti-government political individuals, parties and vested interests do not try to create instability in the country and create confusion in the public mind by spreading rumors through various types of false propaganda or propaganda to fulfill personal interests. In addition, instructions have been given to increase intelligence surveillance.

An official of the Ministry of Home Affairs told our time on condition of anonymity that rumors or propaganda are often being spread on social media Facebook about the government, law enforcement agencies, individuals at different levels of the government, as well as Bangladesh. It has been decided to launch a ‘counter narrative’ campaign to present the truth to the public against propaganda.

Fact-checking organization Rumor Scanner’s investigation found 271 pieces of evidence of spreading false information involving Bangladesh from various social media accounts. The organization identified these false information spread on the Internet in January this year.

Rumor Scanner said that the most evidence of 114 false information was found on political issues, which is 42 percent of the total false information. In addition, 67 were found on national, 29 on international, 18 on religious, 15 on entertainment and literature, 9 on education, 6 on fraud, and 5 on sports.

The fact-checking organization said that there were 115 factual errors in these incidents. There were 54 image-centric and 102 video-centric errors. Of the identified misinformation, 175 were false, 65 were misleading and 31 were distorted. As a platform, Facebook spread the most misinformation in January, which is 225 in number. In addition, 56 were found on X, 44 on TikTok, 42 ​​on YouTube, 19 on Instagram, and at least one misinformation was found on Threads.

The issue of spreading communal misinformation has been in the news for several months. Rumor Scanner identified 32 such communal misinformation in January. Out of these, evidence of misinformation spreading from Indian accounts and pages on social media was found in 25 of these incidents.

A police official said that in recent times, untrue, fabricated, misleading and provocative statements about the government, members of the advisory council, army officers, police officers and members of law enforcement agencies are being spread on various social media platforms from the country and abroad. This has the potential to disrupt the existing peaceful environment in the country and also to create anxiety, hatred, and confusion among the public.

Do Follow: greenbanglaonline24