Abdul Aziz, Erasmus Mundus Scholar, QUT, Australia

Abdul Aziz, Erasmus Mundus Scholar, QUT, Australia : For young social media users in Bangladesh, even a fast scroll through Facebook’s newsfeed delivers fuel hatred and chauvinistic fervor from religion to gender, and from cricket culture to politics.
Bangladesh has been one of the fastest social media using countries with Dhaka being the second in terms of having the most active Facebook users in the world, according to Global Digital Statshot of Q2 report of 2017. Meanwhile, the total number of Mobile Phone subscriptions has reached 147.000 million at the end of January, 2018.
According to the statistics of ‘Internet Live Stats’, (estimate for July 1, 2016), there are 21,439,070 Internet users in Bangladesh, almost 13.2 % (penetration) share of its population, 0.6 % share of the World Internet Users and users change in one year in the country is 10.4 %. Information-age Bangladesh is defined by Facebook as more people have access to Facebook than power supply. And news feeds in Bangladesh are rife with the socio-political issues shared not only by ordinary people but also by senior politician and leaders.
Online and offline hate speeches are mutually reinforcing. However, nefarious element in a manner frequently becomes viral on social media making it difficult to identify the source and hold the user responsible. This is a dangerous trend since the internet is very potent. However, to truly prevent incidents of hate speech online remain quite difficult in Bangladesh.
The flames of hatred
Spreading hate crimes are related to religion, politics, gender, mob violence and communal injustice. Recently, the accused of stabbing Zafar Iqbal admitted that he was radicalised through social media. The incident has reminded the memories of a series of deadly attacks against atheist bloggers that occurred in 2015. Ironically, many social media users expressed their happiness over attack accusing Zafar Iqbal is with the ruling party.
A Bangladeshi airline crashed in Nepal killing 49 people including Co-pilot Pritula Rashid who was cruelly criticised on social media questioning her skills. Later, it has been brought to the public attention by the high profile hashtag #RespectForPrithula campaigns.
In Bangladesh it has been very common trend in social media to relate the issue of harassment of women on the public places for “violating” religious dress codes.
The cases of mob rampage and wrecked a Buddhist temples in Ramu and Rasraj Dash a young Hindu fisherman were brutal example of communal riots instigated through the social media. In 2012, tens of thousands of rioters left a trace of destruction in Cox’s Bazar.
In 2017, an inflammatory image Hindu God Shiva on Muslim holy site Kaaba) was posted to his Facebook page (Rasraj Das allegedly unbeknownst to him), leading to the attack on 100 Hindu homes and 15 temples. Both cases were found to be pre-planned, to initiate communal violence.
How social media divides people
Looking back to the emergence of the Shahbag protest, representing a new grassroots movement using social media had already been a flagship moment insisting demand on the violence of capital punishment of accused war criminals. Under the interim Awami League government, the decision to formulate a national court on the basis of the 1973 International Crimes (Tribunal) Act has been controversial. There have been accusations that the Tribunal is politically motivated and justice delivered from a flawed judicial process that it does not meet international standards.
The perspective of national identity and the simplistic narrative relating to Liberation War by many intellectuals and academics has now been used as a shield to safeguard the running government’s frequent misdeeds, creating hate speeches on the social media.
Apart from the political issues, the Islamist backlash has also raised tough the majority of people, with the first such killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013, followed by a series of murders. Many say some Bangladeshi bloggers consistently making fun of Islam demeaning Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), thoroughly radicalising a number of youths.
A group of misguided people have been remotely radicalized by inflammatory words, posting video and images over the social media, with the contemporary inflammatory trend of social media kept on feeding strong partisan talk between the divided people of Bangladesh.
It becomes ‘unstoppable’
Spreading hate speech through social media has become ‘unstoppable’ in Bangladesh. The government worries those behind the fake Facebook accounts are associated with fake users involving in provocation of religious hatred and propaganda activities. On March 30, 2017 the State Minister for Posts and Telecommunication Tarana Halim held a meeting with Facebook officials in Singapore where complaints were filed by the government against the fake Facebook accounts it. Subsequently, Facebook issued a notification saying they are closing down fake accounts due to security concerns and claimed that Bangladesh ranks the list of countries that have maximum number of fake accounts. In addition, the government already blocked 35 web sites that spread hate and foment violence, as the government claimed.
Accordingly, a national Bengali daily reported that the proportion of the age group of Facebook users in Bangladesh are 73% of 13-25 age, 20% of 26-34 age, 5% of 35-45 age 2% above of 45 age respectively.
A survey by Bangladesh police among 250 jailed for the involvement of militancy found that 82% were radicalized on social media including messaging apps.
It’s also seen social media being used as a popular tool to disseminate hate speech during the cricket tournaments, especially with the neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan.
Earlier, the government enacted Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT) while the section 57 of the act was much criticized. At least 21 journalists were sued under section 57 within four months after the law was enacted. On January 29, the cabinet approved a draft law to propose Digital Security Act (DSA). However, the government shut down Internet and social media platform includes Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp several times as a reaction to incidents of unrest or violence.
The Human Rights Watch warns the law violates the country’s international obligation to protect freedom of speech.
There is no hope when the state’s frameworks to regulate hate speech serves little purpose unless they wake up people’s conscience. So what is the role of social media when it comes to hate speech? The question remained unanswered.