Bangladeshis Behind Global Far-Right Online Movements: Here’s What We Know

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In recent weeks, growing protests against Covid-19 restrictions have paralyzed the Canada-US borders and downtown Ottawa. As the protest gathers momentum online from groups and sites spreading propaganda, an investigation has been launched by the US news site network has unearthed compelling evidence linking a Bangladeshi digital marketing firm behind these online promotions.

Grid found that JS Digital Guide, a Bangladesh-based digital marketing firm, ran two of Ottawa’s largest Facebook groups, spreading propaganda and conspiracy theories and promoting the protests online to reach more people.

Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

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Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

The groups, dubbed “Freedom Convoy 2022” and “Convoy to Ottawa 2022,” had a combined membership of nearly 1,70,000, mostly Canadians, before Meta decided to shut them down following the Grid investigation.

The groups regularly fundraised campaigns for the protests and directed their members to events related to the protests in Canada, Grid reports.

During the course of the investigation, Grid was able to track down one Jakir Saikot, the founder of JS Digital Guide. Saikot told Grid in an online interview that he started the groups because he “believed in freedom”. He also said he has not received any payment for promoting the protests or leading the groups.

Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

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Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

But Saikot apparently gave a different account of the events to Nazmul Ahasan, a reporter with the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley, whom Grid contacted to confirm the events.

Saikot reportedly admitted to Ahasan that he was paid $23 a day for promoting and running the Facebook groups.

When contacted separately by this correspondent, Saikot initially refused to comment on his involvement in the matter. However, he later admitted he was contacted by a journalist named Grid’s Steve Reilly, but claimed it was a “misunderstanding”.

“I don’t have an agency. I run a small cellphone shop in Dhaka and have no involvement in what is going on in Canada,” he said.

“Please don’t believe what’s being circulated about me. It’s fake and fabricated. I don’t know how they got my number but someone is clearly trying to slander my name.”

“Grid is a small news site with almost 1000 likes on Facebook. You don’t have to take them seriously,” Saikot said.

When asked about his conversations with Nazmul Ahasan, Saikot insisted that he had not spoken to Ahasan and further claimed that Ahasan may have had other intentions. “He’s probably running a paid smear campaign against me, although I don’t know why.”

However, this is not the only incident in which Bangladeshis have been involved in far-right protest groups. Earlier this month, another investigation by crikeyan Australia-based news site, revealed that a Bangladeshi Facebook profile going by the name of Shamim Khan was behind a similar group called Convoy to Canberra.

Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

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Photo: @BySteveReilly on Twitter

Shamim Khan’s account claimed that he is from Rajshahi, Bangladesh and his account mostly contained posts shared in Bengali. But the account has been seen repeatedly posting content related to the protest in the group Convoy to Canberra, Crickey reported.

The ongoing movements were first started in Canada by truckers defying Covid-19 protection mandates, but other “anti-vaccination” and “QAnon groups” soon joined, sparking similar far-right movements around the world.

Canada’s government recently invoked for the first time the Emergencies Act to stem the growing protests, which allows the government to use military force against protesters if and when absolutely necessary.

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