March 28, 2025
DHAKA – US-based International Policy Digest (IPD) has been allowing ghost authors to publish articles critical of Bangladesh’s interim government since the August 2024 political changeover, an investigation by Dismislab has found.
These articles, often containing misinformation, have been republished in some Bangladeshi media, adding to a questionable narrative. They have also been shared and re-shared on social media.
They gained traction when posted by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and other official pages linked to the Awami League, according to the investigation report published on March 26.
The investigation by Dismislab, a fact-checking platform, uncovered 10 such articles published on IPD website since August 5 by eight authors with no verifiable identities or contact details. They have no social media presence and their profile pictures were traced back to stock photo websites like Shutterstock and Freepik.
One particular target of the campaign has been Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur, who recently visited the UK to seek British government’s support to repatriate some of the stolen money allegedly laundered abroad, including in the UK, by members of the Hasina government, the Dismislab investigation found.
One of the articles, A House of Glass: The Hypocrisy of Bangladesh’s Interim Government, published on January 31, 2025, targeted Mansur and his daughter who lives abroad.
The piece criticised the interim government for investigating properties linked to the AL while allegedly ignoring the governor’s family wealth.
This article gained traction in some Bangladeshi news and social media platforms.
The article was shared on Facebook by Bangladesh Chhatra League, the recently banned student wing of the Awami League. Sajeeb Wazed Joy shared it on X and Facebook, just the day after IPD published it.
Another IPD article that attracted social media attention was written by one Gustav Ellison, titled The Unelected Banker: Ahsan Mansur’s Gamble with Bangladesh’s Economy. That too was shared by Bangladesh Chhatra League on Facebook. Dismislab could not find any information about this author either.
On March 25, when Dismislab was wrapping up its investigation, The Guardian reported concerns among British MPs about being targeted by disinformation campaigns related to Bangladesh. Emails containing links of such IPD articles were sent out to UK MPs by a such ghost writer and a public relations firm before a session with Mansur. The British daily could not trace the so-called journalist behind the email, and the PR firm declined to disclose on whose behalf it had sent the article to the British MPs, according to the Dismislab investigation.
To test IPD’s editorial process, Dismislab submitted two fabricated articles under fake identities and credentials.
One article, slamming the United Nations of bias in its OHCHR report on the July 2024 uprising, was published without verification of the author or the content. Dismislab deliberately included three pieces of misinformation as well as conspiracy theories in the article, but the article got published anyway.
A Bangladesh news portal had republished the article, but later took it down.
The second article, praising the newly formed National Citizen Party, remains unpublished.
IPD’s Editor-in-Chief John Lyman admitted to Dismislab that fake authors might have slipped through their verification process, citing the platform’s reliance on trust with its contributors.
On Dismislab’s question about misinformation in their articles, Lyman said, “Any news website will occasionally run articles that can contain factually incorrect information, which unfortunately happens. Those issues can be easily fixed.”