A Facebook post has ignited widespread debate and criticism. The post in question, stating "You are next," was allegedly made by Interim Government Advisor Asif Mahmud to warn a newspaper. The controversy originated from a report published in the media. However, investigations reveal that the report was erroneous. The post attributed to Advisor Asif Mahmud was actually made by a different individual with the same name. The actual poster, Asif Mahmud, was the first to identify this mistake and questioned the media’s practice of publishing news without verification.

Details of the Incident
Banglavision published a report with the headline, “You Are Next: Advisor Asif Mahmud Warns a Newspaper!” The report included a feature image of Interim Government Advisor Asif Mahmud and claimed that he had warned a newspaper about unethical journalism. According to the report, Asif Mahmud stated on his “verified” Facebook account that he had collected text from 3.7 million news articles from a certain publication to analyze instances of unethical journalism.

The claim led investigators to search the Facebook account and page of Advisor Asif Mahmud, but no such post was found. A deeper search revealed that the post originated from a Facebook page belonging to another individual named Asif Mahmud. This person identifies as a “Muslim, Engineer, Writer, Anti-liberal” and is a graduate of Noakhali University of Science and Technology. On November 28, 2024, at 9:53 PM, this page posted:

“I am not Advisor Asif Mahmud. I don’t understand why media outlets publish news without verifying. Bangla vision, please remove your news regarding Advisor Asif Mahmud. We are two different persons.”
Earlier, on the same day at 6:25 PM, the page had shared another post, stating:

“As part of an investigation into unethical journalism, we collected 3.7 million news texts from a dark publication in one night. Sounds impossible, right? Wondering how we did it? Guess you’ll never know. Over 1 million news clippings have also been collected. Now, we’ll proceed with topic-based clustering using extensive keyword searches. The clustered news texts and images, along with dates, will be published as a database. The responsibility for addressing these findings lies with the country’s conscious journalists, intellectuals, political scientists, sociologists, religious scholars, and the general public. To that publication: You are next!”
This clarifies that the post, initially misattributed to Advisor Asif Mahmud, was actually made by writer Asif Mahmud. Recognizing the error, Banglavision subsequently removed their report.