The Peril of Facebook

Like elsewhere around the world, social media, particularly Facebook has become immensely popular in Bangladesh and the number of Facebook users increased significantly. According to Statista.com, Bangladesh had 44.1 million users in 2021. 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, on 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 2013, there have been scores of incidents where posting on Facebook or comments on social media have landed in individuals being tried and convicted. The Digital Security Act and its predecessor, the ICT Act, were used by individuals and government agencies in this regard. During the period of our study, 568 cases have been filed against 1175 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 568 cases, 51 cases have been filed for harassment (accused 83) and 29 cases for financial fraud via Facebook (accused 93). Of the remaining 488 cases, 85 cases have been filed for hurting religious sentiments accusing 138 individuals (Figure 12). Further disaggregation of the cases involving hurting religious sentiments show that 76 were for slandering and nine for provocation and spreading rumors through fake status or video, accusing 125 and 13 people, respectively.