A social media storm quietly began brewing last night, involving two media houses and two senior leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP) Hasnat Abdullah and Tasnim Zara.
It all began when Senior Joint Member Secretary of National Citizen Party (NCP) Dr Tasnim Jara posted a status on her verified Facebook page, calling out two Bangla-language dailies for circulating an allegedly doctored image of hers.
"This evening, two newspapers…have published photo cards implying that I was photographed in public wearing "half pant" attire.
"Their coverage centres on a photo that is manipulated, likely through AI, to provoke controversy and shame," she wrote.
She also said there was no mention that the photo was fake.
"Just enough suggestion to plant doubt, stir whispers, and try to tarnish my dignity."
Later, fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner confirmed that the viral image was inauthentic, and in fact manipulated by artificial intelligence (AI).
Hasnat Abdullah, chief coordinator of the NCP, issued a statement directed at journalists following the incident.
Taking to Facebook, he alleged that some media houses would actively serve Sheikh Hasina's fascist regime.
He also directly accused a business group of using its media outlets to support Hasina.
Hasnat then took to the comments section of one of the bangla daily's Facebook pages, which reported on his "threats to journalists", saying his words were only directed towards particular media houses owned by a specific business group.
The war of words is still brewing, with Hasnat now threatening to expose the business conglomerate for its alliance with the fallen AL regime.
The Dhaka Stream has refrained from mentioning the names of the dailies and the business group as comments from them have not been collected.
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