Within days of The Guardian reporting that British Members of Parliament (MPs) had received emails containing fake news about Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur ahead of a key meeting, Bangladeshi fact-checking website Dismislab unveiled the results of an extensive investigation into the platform where these articles were published: the International Policy Digest (IPD).
The findings of this month-long study raised serious concerns about the integrity of IPD's editorial process and its role in disseminating targeted disinformation.
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Dismislab’s investigation traced 10 articles published on IPD's website that were critical of Bangladesh’s post-uprising government. The articles, written by authors whose identities could not be verified, were tied to a broader disinformation campaign aimed at undermining Dr Mansur, a key figure in Bangladesh’s financial sector.
These articles, often authored by “ghost authors” with no verifiable identities, credentials, or contact details, had gained significant traction in Bangladeshi media and on social media platforms. In some cases, they were shared and reshared by political figures, including Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, amplifying the questionable narratives.
The articles focused primarily on Dr Mansur’s leadership of Bangladesh’s central bank, with some of the content even attacking his personal life. One particularly notable series of articles, coinciding with Dr. Mansur’s visit to the UK in March 2025 to discuss the repatriation of allegedly laundered funds, targeted him directly. These articles, all published around the time of his visit, questioned his qualifications and integrity while also taking aim at his daughter’s lifestyle, framing her as emblematic of the alleged hypocrisy of the country’s financial leadership.
This campaign culminated in The Guardian’s March 24, 2025 report, which revealed that British MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Responsible Tax and Corruption had received emails before their scheduled session with Dr. Mansur. The emails contained links to articles published on IPD that questioned the wealth of Dr. Mansur’s family.
These emails, purportedly from a journalist and a UK public relations firm, suggested MPs investigate Dr. Mansur, but the journalist could not be traced, and the PR firm refused to disclose who had commissioned the emails. MPs feared they were being targeted by a smear campaign designed to disrupt their inquiry into corruption in Bangladesh.
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Dismislab’s investigation provided crucial insight into the ghost authors behind these disinformation articles. The website identified at least eight authors who had no verifiable presence online. Their profile photos were found to be stock images taken from websites like Shutterstock and Freepik. When Dismislab attempted to verify the identities of these authors through social media and online databases, all criteria returned negative results.
These so-called authors had no identifiable digital presence, and there were no available means of contacting them. One such ghost author, Tim Larkin, was behind the article “A House of Glass: The Hypocrisy of Bangladesh’s Interim Government”, which gained widespread attention in both Bangladeshi news outlets and on social media. Another ghost author, Kristopher O’Brian, wrote an article before the uprising criticizing Bangladesh’s caretaker government system.
Dismislab’s findings revealed a significant flaw in IPD’s editorial process. The platform’s editor-in-chief, John Lyman, responded to questions about the verification process, admitting that some “fake authors may have slipped through,” given that the publication has nearly 3,000 contributors. He claimed that some authors requested anonymity, which he granted. However, he did not clarify whether any background checks were conducted before publishing articles.
Despite these admissions, Lyman maintained that IPD does publish articles from credible authors, citing previous pieces on Bangladesh that featured writers with verifiable credentials. However, Dismislab’s investigation found that the site’s editorial standards were so weak that misinformation and propaganda could easily slip through without proper scrutiny. The fact that an article accusing the United Nations of bias in its report on the July 2024 uprising was published without verification only underscores this vulnerability.
The investigation revealed that many of the articles published on IPD followed a clear narrative attacking Bangladesh’s banking system and its governor. The first in the series, “Crisis of Confidence: How Bangladesh’s Banking Woes Threaten Stability” (November 2024), criticized the country’s financial system but did not single out individuals. However, subsequent pieces shifted the focus toward personal attacks on Dr. Mansur, with articles such as “The Unelected Banker: Ahsan Mansur’s Gamble with Bangladesh’s Economy” (February 2025) directly questioning his qualifications and decision-making. The series of articles culminated with “The Missing Transparency in Bangladesh’s Financial Crusade” (March 2025), which argued that the financial strategies under the interim government disproportionately benefited certain individuals, undermining economic stability.
The timing of these articles was also suspicious. The attack on Dr. Mansur’s credibility coincided with his diplomatic mission to the UK, where he was seeking British government support to recover funds allegedly siphoned abroad by members of the Bangladeshi government. The articles seemed designed to undermine his standing and credibility at a critical moment in his international efforts.
Moreover, these IPD articles quickly gained traction within Bangladeshi media. For instance, “A House of Glass: The Hypocrisy of Bangladesh’s Interim Government” was republished by BD Digest, Khaborer Kagoj, and Daily Janakantha, among others. On social media, the articles were shared by the Facebook page of Bangladesh Students’ League, a student wing of the Awami League, and by Sajeeb Wazed Joy, further amplifying the disinformation.
Dismislab’s investigation also involved a sting operation submitting fake articles to IPD to test its editorial processes. One fabricated article, “Does the United Nations Have a Bias Problem?”, was submitted under the fake name Sarah Sunehra Zaman. The article, which included false claims about the July 2024 uprising and the UN’s alleged bias, was published by IPD despite the misinformation being easily debunked by fact-checkers. The submission process was alarmingly simple, requiring only the completion of a Google form and an email submission.
In contrast, a second fabricated article, “National Citizen Party: The Students’ Hope for Bangladesh’s Future”, written under the fake name Najib Khan, was not published. This discrepancy raises further concerns about the editorial inconsistency and lack of rigorous verification at IPD.
Professor A Al Mamun, a Mass Communication and Journalism expert at Rajshahi University, noted that these articles were part of a sustained and well-planned propaganda campaign. He pointed out that fake experts had been used in previous disinformation campaigns targeting Bangladesh, and the current situation appeared to be an extension of this strategy.
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The findings of this investigation call into question IPD’s responsibility as an international media outlet. The publication’s failure to verify the identities of its contributors or fact-check the content it publishes has allowed disinformation to spread unchecked, further contributing to the political instability in Bangladesh. Given the platform’s role in amplifying misleading narratives and the ongoing use of fake authors to push political agendas, IPD’s editorial practices must be critically reassessed.