Old video recirculates with false claim it shows 'Bangladesh fuel hike protest in 2022'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 23, 2022 at 11:48
2 min read
By AFP Bangladesh

A video of violent clashes between protesters and police officers has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows demonstrations in Bangladesh triggered by record fuel hikes in August 2022. The video, however, has been shared in a false context. It has circulated in news reports since 2013 about deadly protests in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka by hardline Islamist activists calling for a new anti-blasphemy law.

The video was shared on Facebook on August 8, 2022. It has been viewed more than 700 times.

The post's Bengali-language caption translates to English in part as: "Massive protests in different cities after the liberal-loving Bangladesh government decided to increase petrol prices by 51% and diesel by 42%."

The video circulated as thousands of Bangladeshis besieged petrol stations across the country after the government announced the largest fuel price jump on record on August 6, 2022.

Dhaka announced that the price of petrol was going up by 51.7 percent and diesel by 42.5 percent.

Demonstrators said the increases would disproportionately hit the country's tens of millions of poor people, who use diesel to power transport and farming irrigation pumps.

Protesters took to the streets in the capital, as well as in the cities of Chittagong, Sylhet, Noakhali, Gopalgonj, Bogura, Patuakhali and Bhola.

A screenshot of the false Facebook post ( AFP / )

The video was also viewed more than 269,000 times alongside a similar claim here on Twitter, and in Facebook posts in Bengali and English.

The video, however, shows a protest in Dhaka in 2013.

Deadly protest

Combined reverse image and keyword searches found the video posted on YouTube by British broadcaster Channel 4 News on May 6, 2013.

The video's caption reads: "Bangladesh riots: Islamist hardliners fight with police".

Below are two screenshot comparisons of the video in the false posts (left) and the 2013 YouTube video (right):

A screenshot comparison of the false Facebook post (left) and the Channel 4 News video (right) ( AFP / )

At the time, AFP reported that Bangladeshi police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners in Dkaha who were calling for a new anti-blasphemy law.

At least 32 people were killed and hundreds more injured in some of the fiercest street violence for decades.

Locations seen in the video can also be seen in Dhaka on Google Street View here and here.

Below is a screenshot comparison of a keyframe in the video (left) and the location on Google Street View (right):

A screenshot comparison of the video (left) and the same location on Google Street View (right) ( AFP / )

The opening 27 seconds of the video were also published here on YouTube by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on May 6, 2013.

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