The Precarity of Using Facebook

In recent years, social media, particularly Facebook has become immensely popular in Bangladesh and the number of Facebook users increased significantly. According to Statista.com, Bangladesh had 52.9 million users as of January 2024. Facebook has been used for inciting religious and ethnic violence on the one hand while creating avenues for expressing grievances against the government and helping to organize social movements. There is palpable discomfort among the ruling party and the government about the increasing influence of Facebook. Consequently, in several instances, the government tried to restrict Facebook. For example, in March 2021, during demonstrations against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh, services were restricted for three days (Netblocks, 2021). Since 2020, the government has repeatedly insisted that social media organizations need to have offices in Bangladesh (The Daily Star, 2020). Critics suggest that having local offices will make these organizations susceptible to the government pressure. There have been scores of incidents in recent years, particularly since 2013, incidents where posting on Facebook or comments on social media have landed in individuals being tried and convicted. The government’s sensitivity about the Facebook postings can be understood from the arrest of Anisa Siddika (58), mother of a student at Michigan State University, USA in August 2023. Tanzilur Rahman, who is pursuing his doctorate at the MSU posted some critical comments about the government which landed his mother in jail. She was later released on bail (Kaur, 2023). The Digital Security Act and its predecessor, the ICT Act, were used by individuals and government agencies in situations to send a message that they are closely watching the media.

During the period of our study, 908 cases have been filed against 2328 individuals for posts and comments on Facebook. We have divided these cases by the reasons cited in filing cases into various categories and gathered data about the number of cases and the accused. Of these 908 cases, 95 cases have been filed for harassment (accused 175) and 77 cases for financial fraud via Facebook (accused 319). Of the remaining 736 cases, 129 cases have been filed for hurting religious sentiments accusing 198 individuals (Figure 20). Further disaggregation of the cases involving hurting religious sentiments shows that 95 were for slandering and 34 for provocation and spreading rumors through fake status or video, accusing 154 and 44 people, respectively.