Social media is undoubtedly important in a technology dependent society. The mediums have brought a touch of modernity to the communication system rather than the traditional life. The events happening at one end of the road are reaching the other end. Contact is being made with relatives and friends.
Many people are also making income from this medium. But this medium is being used arbitrarily as there is no law or policy which is doing more harm than good. A class of self-interested circles is creating anarchy in the society and the country by spreading terrible information like social superstitions, religious affiliations and rumours. Especially through fake ID, people of that class are spreading propaganda against the country at will from the country and outside the country which is really terrible and harmful.
Rumors of Delwar Hossain Saidi's sighting on the moon have also been seen in the past creating chaos in the country. According to many, millions of Rohingyas are being killed and drowned while the government is not giving them shelter. People were misled with numerous bogus facts and embarrassing policy statements. But those Rohingyas are cut throat today. Recently I saw the same picture in the quota reform movement of students. Third parties exploiting students. Due to which the country's wealth worth crores of rupees was destroyed, along with the administration people, young students and journalists, many ordinary working people had to be seen dead that is a very painful event. There are many countries in the world where cricket is not played, what harm has it done to those countries who have stopped using social media? If a medium has more negative than positive usage. Even if you want to keep the media which causes damage to the country, should not be brought under the appropriate law? Do not have authentic media in our country?
There are thousands of electronic and print media. Are they not enough for a country? Social Media Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Viber, WhatsApp, Imo, Snapchat, WeChat etc. The most popular of these is Facebook. Perhaps the biggest addiction ever discovered in the history of the world is Facebook. Due to which students are averse to studies. Officers are seen driving these for hours on end. Actually they are more important than work. Sincereness with each other is not seen any more like in the past. It seems that people from different planets are sitting in the same place. Due to which the younger ones are turning to IS at a young age. I don't listen to my parents. There is no sincerity, even in loneliness, incidents like suicide often occur.
As of April 2021, the number of Facebook users in the world is more than 290 million. And in Bangladesh this number is more than five crore. Facebook is now a personal broadcasting medium. Ordinary people can't promote anything quickly in any mainstream media. But it is possible to spread it quickly through social media. Thanks to Facebook, the level of social communication has increased many times over in the past. Using social media, people have overcome geographical distance and taken human communication to a new level. A new trend is noticeable in addition to personal communication. That is Facebook blogging. What users used to write in blogs about contemporary politics, economics, literature and social issues, are now writing in Facebook status.
This status is being debated for and against. Incidents such as fights and even murders often occur over these issues. Facebook has a significant impact on shaping public opinion and creating awareness. These mediums are mainly used as means of mutual communication, social service, creative and business-economic work, but its use in various negative and criminal activities is also increasing at an alarming rate which we have seen from the past few years and recently in the quota reform movement.
A study found that nude pictures and videos are posted on Facebook, making nasty comments about women and promoting sensitive topics. Harassing someone by publishing ugly pictures, spewing communalism, spreading hatred, hatred and rumours, has become a casual affair. For ideological reasons, different groups are trying to denigrate each other through Facebook. Deliberately false, fabricated or false information is published and defamed, and even death threats are made. Especially against women, cyber mobbing or cyber bullying are constantly being reported.
These include superimposing and pornography. The rate of 'uploading' of these pornography and images on YouTube and various sites is increasing. Analyzing the information provided by the female complainants, it can be seen that Facebook chat or video chat pictures are being shared here and there or personal relationship videos are being shared quickly on YouTube or various porn sites. A quick investigation after the complaint came from the victim woman showed that it has been shared thousands of times. Then even reporting on Facebook doesn't work.
Google is also not interested in deleting these. As a result, the situation is becoming more complicated. In addition to these complaints from women, there are incidents like Facebook ID hack, e-mail ID hack, different types of porn sites or leaving personal photos on porn sites. Apart from this, young men have raped and killed young women by calling them about love using Facebook. There are also complaints of repeated rape or extortion of money by spamming by threatening to release the rape video on Facebook.
Militant organizations have long used social media extensively to conduct their activities, organize themselves and recruit new members. Various social media apps are being used as the primary means of carrying out sabotage and terrorist activities. Even after sabotage-murder-terrorism, social media is being used to inform about it. Militants announced on social media that 20 people were killed after attacking Holy Artisan. The alarming thing is that all the terrible crimes are increasing in Bangladesh using various social media apps. Gambling, pornography and human trafficking are not left out. The biggest concern is that our teenagers are getting involved
Police surveillance and measures are not enough to prevent the epidemic of crime spread through social media. Experience shows that criminals are operating accounts under different names after identifying groups involved in crime and closing their accounts. Many people think that various apps need to be closed to prevent criminal activities. As it is difficult to stop apps, banning them also does not help. Use cannot be prevented by banning. Criminals continue to commit crimes by adopting new tactics.
Therefore, initiatives should be taken to inculcate ethical and moral sense among the users. Legislation should be reined in. There is a need for extensive awareness campaigns in various authentic media to avoid the negative aspects of Facebook and the dire consequences of falling prey to various temptations and deceptions of social media. Along with that, teachers and parents should be aware. So that no one can write whatever they want. It is necessary for the government to take such an initiative. There is an urgent need for laws or policies on social media to make it clear that digital does not mean dirty.
The writer is an Assistant Professor and Head of Department at (Sociology), Rosey Mozammel Women's Honors College
