SerpApi.Org
As protests led by India's online "cockroach" movement emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi's government, social media users sought to discredit demonstrators by falsely claiming they had Muslim backers. A purported statement of support from the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami circulated as proof of the movement's "motive", but a spokesperson for Bangladesh's largest Islamist party told AFP the statement is a forgery. The document contains errors while detection tools flagged that it was AI-generated.
"Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami has publicly extended its support to the ongoing CJP protest in India," says part of a July 21 X post , using the initials of the Cockroach Janta Party -- an online movement that has won millions of followers on social media since it was launched in May ( archived link ).
The post continues: "Day by day the picture is becoming clear, and the motive of this protest is clearly not in the interests of the students!"
Attached to the post is a purported press release issued by Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, that expresses support for the youth-led movement in India and strongly condemns "any repression, violence, or injustice faced by protesting students".
Similar posts spread as thousands of protesters gathered in the heart of the Indian capital to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, whom they hold responsible for a series of exam irregularities that have shaken confidence in India's education system ( archived link ).
The demands of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement were echoed at rallies nationwide as the movement expanded its scope to tackle concerns over unemployment, opportunities for young people and what it describes as Modi's increasingly authoritarian style of governance.
On July 20, police fired tear gas and used batons to stop protesters from marching on parliament during one of the largest street rallies in Delhi in around five years ( archived link ).
Police said 60 civilians and 119 officers were injured, while protest organisers say hundreds of demonstrators were hurt.
The purported press release was also shared in similar Instagram and X posts , and by an Indian news channel .
"The real masterminds behind this movement are forces from outside the country that want unrest in India," reads a comment on one of the posts.
Another says: "Foreign Islamic jihadists are the real funders of this movement; this press note is proof of that."
But the statement is a fabrication.
Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, Jamaat-e-Islami's central media and publicity affairs secretary, told AFP the purported statement is "forged, fraudulent, and does not originate from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami".
"The letterhead/pad used in the falsely shared post has several errors. Jamaat does not use the logo seen in the viral post. The office address and the credentials used also do not match the ones used by Jamaat," he said on July 21.
The party also denounced the spread of the fabricated statement in a post on its official X account on July 21 ( archived link ).
Other errors in the document include the misspelling of "Bangladesh" in the letterhead logo and "courageous" in the opening paragraph.
A comparison of the falsely shared document with an authentic Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami press release identified inconsistencies in language, formatting and structure.
According to an analysis by the Hive Moderation detection tool, the document is likely to contain AI-generated content ( archived link ).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims about the CJP-led protests .
