A US-funded disinformation fighter turned into a super spreader of disinformation in Bangladesh as he is calling for mid-term elections at the demand of foreign countries. The same campaign also predicted change in government in Bangladesh and raised questions over the rationality of funding.
The caption of the video is a classic disinformation that shows Zillur took up the responsibility to speak on behalf of foreign countries as their appointed spokesperson concerning Bangladesh.
He even predicted the the Arab Spring-style fall of the government in Bangladesh calling it Bangla Spring which echoed the tone of the opposition.
How can a partisan activist like Zillur be invited to fight disinformation by the US embassy when the figure can be found spreading disinformation day in and day out?
Zillur’s comment contravenes reality as almost all countries in the world expressed their observations on polls but no country officially made the claim for any interim polls in their official reports.
The video has been shared massively on social media platforms by opposition activists from BNP and Jamaat who are up and running with the call for the “fall of the government” implying that foreigners endorsed their violence and arson attacks to derail polls.
This is not the first case for Zillur to proudly present political narratives rather than fighting out disinformation over the space of the last year his channels on Facebook and YouTube.
On February 11, a tweet from the US Embassy included a photo of Zillur alongside a group of what observers say are ardent supporters of Ambassador Peter Haas and described them as fighters against disinformation.
But just weeks later, Zillur came up with an old video on his YouTube channel where three speakers even took on 190 civil society members in defence of Hass.
Analysts question the sudden interest shown by Zillur by replaying that old video and say it is a clear attempt to justify the earlier move by Hass on the inclusion of media under US sanctions.
Other captions from his YouTube claim “US will take steps soon”, and “US swings into action, what will happen”? “What can the US do”?, and “Meeting among US BNP and civil society members, what will the US do?” among other titles of his videos.
Such continuous spread of disinformation and lies by Zillur from his verified channel clearly shows US funding for combating disinformation is empowering one-sided partisan campaigners.