It was certain which party would win the most seats in Bangladesh’s 12th Jatiya Sangsad election held on 7 January 2024. The election became known as a ‘dummy vote’.

On the morning of the polling day, however, a fake or ‘deepfake’ video of Abdullah Nahid Nigar, an independent candidate in the Gaibandha-1 constituency, went viral. In the video, he was seen saying that he has withdrawn from the election, which confused many voters.

This is one Bangladeshi example of the use of deepfake videos in elections. A 2024 report titled The Influence of Deepfakes on Elections by the German organisation Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) says such incidents have occurred frequently in recent elections around the world.

The United States, Turkey, Slovakia, Argentina, Indonesia, India, Poland, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Zambia and France the list of such examples goes on.

The KAS report mentions the Bangladeshi case. Another example comes from the United States. In January last year, ahead of the Democratic Party primaries in the state of New Hampshire, a video of then president Joe Biden circulated in which he appeared to discourage voters from voting. The video was a deepfake.