New Delhi, Nov. 10 -- The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has condemned an alleged anti-India campaign in which Chinese vloggers and livestreamers are accused of filming slum areas and impoverished neighbourhoods in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and passing them off as locations in India to portray the country's living conditions negatively.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal termed the reported activity "unfortunate" during Tuesday's weekly media briefing and called for action against those involved in spreading misleading content.
"We have seen media reports in this regard. Such efforts to present a distorted picture of any country are unfortunate," Jaiswal said.
Addressing allegations that foreign individuals were being engaged to falsely depict Bangladeshi locations as Indian neighbourhoods, he said, "the peddling of false narratives only undermines the credibility of those who are undertaking such actions and those who are behind them".
Reports in Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo suggest that the activity has continued for months in Sector 12 of Uttara and the adjoining Tekpara area, where residents estimate that more than 150 Chinese nationals have been recording videos.
The livestreams reportedly feature derogatory commentary about India's poverty, sanitation, food habits and living conditions, with footage of Dhaka's disadvantaged neighbourhoods allegedly presented as scenes from India.
A Chinese national identified as Fangyou told Prothom Alo that the livestreams were linked to product promotion on WeChat. Local guide Ritu Akhter said the creators also earned money through platforms such as Douyin, China's version of TikTok.
The filming has also triggered anger among local residents, who allege that some content creators entered homes and bathrooms without regard for privacy.
"Sometimes they enter our homes and start filming. We are not always properly dressed inside our houses," resident Rozina Khatun told the newspaper.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.