Lighthouse Journalism found a video being shared on social media platforms which was claimed to be a recent rally of minorities in Bangladesh. During the investigation we found that the video is of a rally of Awami League in Bangladesh. Viral claim is misleading.
Claim:
X user Mr Tyagi shared the video with a misleading claim on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We found a video uploaded on the YouTube channel, SM media house20.
The video was titled (translation): Look at the hands of the residents of Gopalganj, a terrible attack || Gopalgonj|| bangla news
We then reached out to a senior fact checker of Bangladesh, Tanvir Mahatab Abir who shared a few more links leading to the original video. He also informed us that this was a political rally.
The Facebook page of Channel 21 News had shared the video with caption (translated): The people of Gopalganj have erupted in continuous protests. Today the people of Kathi Kajulia Majhigati Union are united. channnel21 #NewsUpdate #Channel21News #Gopalganj #Protest #AwameeLeague #Kajulia
Facebook page Khomenee Ehsan too shared the video with caption (translated): Bloody day ahead of Bangladesh. Gopalganj Awami League.
We also found the video on the Facebook group of Supporters of Bangladesh Awami League.
The video was captioned (translation): Today two union people gathered. Kathi Kajulia is the moderate 11/08/2024.
The date was mentioned on the video 11th August, 2024.
Conclusion: A rally taken out by the supporters of Bangladesh’s Awami League is being shared as the rally taken out by minorities in Bangladesh. Viral claim is misleading.
