In a time when digital platforms should be amplifying youth voices for positive change, many of our university spaces, especially on Facebook, are turning into breeding grounds of hostility, misogyny, and moral decline.
What was once a medium for debate and dissent has now become a battlefield of personal attacks, vulgar language, and cyberbullying. At the heart of this trend lies a cultural and ethical crisis that Bangladesh's youth society can no longer afford to ignore.
A Toxic Shift in Online Culture: The proliferation of student-run Facebook pages such as 'Department of Baksal, University of Dhaka' or 'Criminals-DU' reveals the scale of this shift. These pages, often anonymous and unmoderated, routinely publish defamatory posts, slurs, and photoshopped content to publicly humiliate students with differing political or personal views.
Earlier this year, National Citizen Party leader Sarjis Alam filed a legal complaint against two such pages for targeted harassment and cyber defamation, a rare but necessary pushback against digital abuse.
The use of cuss words and slanderous remarks has become so normalised in student circles that decency is often mocked. It is not uncommon to find hundreds of comments under a single Facebook post, filled with gendered slurs and violent threats, especially if the target is a woman, an atheist, a progressive voice, or someone perceived to have violated religious sentiments. It reflects a deeper culture of intolerance wrapped in performative outrage and digital mob justice.
Behind the Screen: Real Harm: Cyberbullying isn't 'just online drama'. It's a serious threat to student well-being. According to a 2022 study by Md. Aminul Islam, published in the 'Jagannath University Journal of Life and Earth Sciences', around 26 percent of university students reported being victims of cyberbullying. This concern is further amplified by a 2023 study by Rahman and his colleagues in the 'Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition', which found that 68.4% of Bangladeshi students were bullied online by strangers, 18.5% by friends, and alarmingly, 7.3% had considered suicide as a result of such harassment.
In the Dhaka University (DU) context, female students are disproportionately affected. Online abuse against DU female students often include slut-shaming, threats of sexual violence, character assassination and doctored images.
One student from International Relations confided that she stopped posting academic opinions on Facebook after being called "pro-India" and "anti-Islam" by fake profiles. Another was driven into isolation after screenshots from her personal Messenger chats were leaked and ridiculed. The mental health toll is devastating, yet hidden, because victims fear speaking up will invite further shaming or disbelief.
Laws That Miss the Mark: The government's attempt to address online harassment has been clumsy at best and repressive at worst. The much-criticised Digital Security Act (DSA) 2018 was meant to protect citizens from cybercrime but was widely misused to stifle free speech. Though replaced by the Cyber Security Act (CSA) 2023, the new law retained vague clauses and disproportionate penalties. For instance, Section 25 (1) criminalised "transmitting, publishing or disseminating any information with intent to annoy, insult, defame or degrade any person", but failed to define it clearly, leaving room for abuse against the very voices it claimed to protect.
In May 2025, amid mounting pressure from rights groups, the government repealed the CSA and introduced the Cyber Security Ordinance. However, legal experts warn that unless structural reforms ensure both protection and freedom, the cycle of censorship and impunity will continue.
What is the role of a university?
Dhaka University, known for its historic role in democracy and intellectual freedom, has remained largely silent on this growing digital toxicity. There is no clear support mechanism for students who face online abuse. There are no cyber ethics workshops, no public guidelines from the administration, and no deterrents for students who turn Facebook into a tool of terror.
A Moral Reckoning Needed: The online space is simply a mirror of what we permit offline. When students casually issue rape threats or hurl obscenities at peers over ideology, it shows how far we've drifted from the values of tolerance and respect. The solution requires collective responsibility:
Curriculum reform need to include digital ethics and cyber civics. University-led campaigns against cyberbullying with student involvement. Legal reform to ensure laws protect victims, not censor dissent. Active moderation of hate-filled Facebook pages, with help from tech platforms.
The fight against cyberbullying is not just about punishing abusers. It's about restoring decency to our discourse and creating a culture where disagreement does not turn into digital warfare. When morality erodes, freedom suffers, and no generation can afford that.
The writer is a student, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka
