Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking organization, has pinpointed 50 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) that have been disseminating communal misinformation by sharing images, videos, and information concerning recent events in Bangladesh.

Each of these accounts was found to have promoted at least one instance of communal misinformation or disinformation.

From August 5 to August 13, their posts collectively garnered over 154 million views, according to a Rumor Scanner report.

The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit's analysis revealed that 72% of these accounts, responsible for spreading false and misleading information, claim to be based in India.

Among the account holders are individuals in responsible positions, and even some mainstream Indian media outlets have broadcast this misleading information.

For instance, on July 7, five people died from electrocution during a Ratha Yatra in Bogra. On August 9, an X account in India posted a video of the incident, falsely claiming it depicted "Jihadis bombing a camp in Bangladesh, killing hundreds of Hindu women and children."

This video, shared in the context of recent events, distorted the actual incident to fit a communal narrative.

Out of the 50 accounts analyzed by the Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit, 13 posts similarly misrepresented different incidents in a communal light.

A common form of misinformation involved portraying Muslim individuals as Hindus. For example, a video falsely claimed that Bangladeshi actor Azmeri Haque Badhon was a Hindu woman giving a tearful speech, presenting it as "a Hindu woman in Bangladesh crying while giving a speech." Azmeri Haque Badhon later refuted this claim.

The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit found evidence of 17 such incidents, making this the most frequent type of misinformation, accounting for 36% of the cases.

A long-term analysis of these accounts reveals that they have been spreading misinformation not just about recent events in Bangladesh but also for several years about various issues across South Asian countries.

A recent video, claiming to show a Hindu man holding a protest demanding information about his missing son, was shared by at least three major Indian media outlets—Asian News International (ANI), NDTV, and Mirror Now—on their X handles. However, Rumor Scanner verified that the man in the video is Muslim. The individual, named Babul Hawlader, participated in the protest to demand information about his son, who has been missing since 2013.

Rumor Scanner found that several other Indian media outlets and individuals associated with them were involved in spreading this communal misinformation. The list includes X accounts of media outlets like Zee News Madhya Pradesh and News24.

The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit also found that Nupur J Sharma, the editor-in-chief of the well-known Indian media outlet OpIndia, regularly spreads communal misinformation about recent events in Bangladesh through her X account. On August 11, she blocked a Rumor Scanner team member on X after being informed that one of her posts was false.

The involvement of various responsible individuals from outside India in spreading communal rumors has also come to light.