In the Bangladesh election, an online ‘haha reaction’ campaign has been trying to manipulate voter perception across party lines and boost the profiles of preferred candidates while discrediting others, according to an investigation.
In the Bangladesh election, a ‘haha reaction’ online campaign has been attempting to manipulate voters’ perception across party lines and boost the profiles of preferred candidates, according to an investigation by The Daily Star.
Bangladesh will hold a parliamentary election —the first since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster— on February 12. Candidates are currently in the final leg of their campaigns.
The investigation found that thousands of bots have been deployed in clusters to flood particular candidates’ social media posts, or posts supportive of them, with ‘haha’ reactions to make it appear as if people are ridiculing and rejecting these candidates. In reality, however, the investigation found that these reactions originated from bots often based abroad with no real connection to Bangladesh.
These bots’ ‘haha campaign’ is therefore aimed at manipulating voters’ perception that a particular candidate is being mocked online as a sign of unpopularity — an apparent attempt to discredit the candidate in the eyes of voters.
But such campaigns are not limited to just one party or its candidates — or even ‘haha’ as ‘love’ campaigns are also involved.
Bipartisan ‘haha’ and ‘love’ campaigns to fool Bangladesh’s voters
The Daily Star found at least four clusters of politically-aligned users who move together on Facebook like an organised army as part of the campaign.
Two of these clusters appear aligned with Jamaat-e-Islami, one with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and another with the Bangladesh Awami League.
The Daily Star noted that what may appear to be a genuine public backlash is often a manufactured reality bought for a few thousand taka.
While the ‘haha campaign’ sought to discredit rivals, ‘love campaigns’ sought to manufacture a perception of growing support for preferred candidates.
The Daily Star found two Jamaat-aligned clusters in the ‘love campaign’, one Awami League cluster, and a BNP-aligned cluster.
The investigation found that the two pro-Jamaat clusters are the most combative and primarily target pro-BNP users.
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