1,369 pro-AL bots commenting on Facebook

In a recent investigation, dismislab uncovered a coordinated bot network on Facebook that used fake accounts to sway public opinion in Awami League’s favour and to discredit the opposition, particularly the BNP.
The investigation began with a seemingly unrelated article on bdnews24.com, where a political comment under the post sparked curiosity.
On June 21 this year, an article titled “Is There an Invisible Code on Every Page Printed by a Color Printer?” appeared on the website and Facebook page of bdnews24.com.
The technical nature of the story might have eluded the interest of political enthusiasts, but it caught the eye of a researcher from dismislab — not for the article itself, but for a comment under the Facebook post.
“This election will be transparent. People will be able to vote freely in the upcoming election. The BNP is scared to participate because they can’t rig the vote this time.”
The dismislab report said, “The researcher was taken aback by the subsequent comments. Even months after the election, users were still making remarks critical of the opposition party and its leaders, expressing hopes for a successful and fair election, and insisting that the election be held under the current government.”
But why would anyone make such comments so long after the election, and that too, on a completely unrelated, non-political post?
Researchers found that a network of 1,369 fake Facebook accounts was responsible for over 21,000 comments across various Facebook pages. These comments, often posted repeatedly on unrelated posts, praised the AL and criticised the BNP, especially leading up to and following the 12th parliamentary election on January 7 this year.
The bot network mainly targeted posts containing specific political keywords but occasionally made errors, leading to comments on irrelevant topics.
“However, they sometimes made errors, particularly with terms that, when  written in Bangla script, coincidentally contained the letters  corresponding to ‘EC’ [Election Commission]. For instance, in the case  of bdnews24.com, an article about color printers mentioned ‘Machine  Identification Code (MIC)’. The bots mistakenly identified the ‘IC’ in ‘MIC’ as ‘EC’ when transliterated into Bangla, leading them to flood the  post with hundreds of comments. The study revealed several such  instances of these bot blunders,” the dismislab report said.
The investigation also revealed that most of the bot profiles shared common traits, such as restricted privacy settings, stolen profile pictures, and minimal friend counts — features consistent with political bots.
This discovery sheds light on the growing issue of Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) on social media platforms, raising concerns about the manipulation of public discourse in Bangladesh.