A staged video depicting extortion and a dramatic physical altercation in the capital's Karwan Bazar has recently gone viral on Facebook, drawing widespread attention. Published on October 15, the video has already been viewed more than 1.2 million times.
While unsuspecting viewers initially mistook the footage for a genuine incident and flooded the comments with praise for the apparent protester, it has since been revealed that the entire episode was entirely scripted. The stunt was orchestrated purely for online engagement, view counts, and platform monetization.
Media and cybersecurity experts have strongly condemned the trend, labeling it as a dangerous form of deception and the spread of misinformation. Saiful Alam Chowdhury, an associate professor at the University of Dhaka, described the act as a deliberate incitement to violence, noting that producing and circulating such staged content constitutes a punishable offense under the law.
