Dozens of Facebook pages, primarily commercial entities, have been using Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus’s name and image in paid advertisements, often accompanied by slogans suggesting a desire for his political leadership, such as “We want Dr. Yunus in power for five years.” However, an investigation by Dismislab, a fact-checking initiative, indicates the primary motive behind these campaigns is to artificially boost page engagement and “farm likes” rather than genuine political support.

The Dismislab report, published recently, identified at least 47 distinct Facebook pages that ran 55 such advertisements between early April and mid-May. The investigation found that nearly 90% of these pages had no history of political content before launching these ads. The pages largely promote products like food, cosmetics, and clothing, or are personal vlogs.

According to Dismislab, this tactic aims to leverage Dr. Yunus’s popularity to quickly increase the visibility and follower count of these pages. Many of these advertisements also reportedly violated Meta's policies by failing to include necessary disclaimers identifying the sponsor or the political nature of the content.

Several page administrators interviewed by Dismislab claimed they had outsourced their page promotion to third-party vendors and were unaware of the specific ad content featuring Dr. Yunus. One page, however, admitted to creating the ad independently to gain more likes and followers, while another confirmed hiring a digital marketing agency but denied prior knowledge of the ad’s message.

A digital marketing expert cited in the report confirmed that increasing follower numbers is a common objective for such advertising strategies. The findings suggest a misleading use of a prominent public figure’s identity for commercial and engagement-driven purposes on social media.

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