Extortion being committed in name of BNP making deep fake videos

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demanded the immediate arrest of a fraudster named 'Nahid Rain' for the crime of extortion in the name of party leaders by making deep fake videos.

Speaking at a press conference, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said, “Today, I will present before you such a shameful and despicable plot which will be a milestone as a heinous example of false propaganda against the opposition in the politics of not only Bangladesh but the whole world.”

The press conference was organised at the party's central office at Nayapaltan in the capital on Sunday.

Rizvi said, “The acting Chairman of BNP is sitting in London and keeping in touch with the leaders and workers of the party all over the country with the help of technology. An app called Zoom is mainly used for communication. Recently, a few pro-government online platforms and media outlets have been extorting BNP well-wishers at home and abroad by creating distorted deep fake videos through artificial intelligence using the speech of the acting chairman of BNP delivered in the Zoom meeting. The extortion video is being circulated again as propaganda tools.”

He said that not only Tarique Rahman, but similar deep fake videos have also been made about several party leaders including BNP National Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy.

This BNP leader said that the information and technology department of the party has identified deep fake videos on Facebook and YouTube and taken measures to remove them. But with the government's patronage, the perpetrators of such indecent acts may again carry out the same shameful activities using messaging apps such as Messenger, WhatsApp, IMO or Viber.

Addressing the countrymen, Rizvi said, “You should be careful of these deep fake videos. Keep this belief within yourselves that no leader of the BNP will ever ask for money from anyone through video calls like this.”