Staff Reporter : Currently, the biggest challenge to freedom of expression in Bangladesh is social media. It is not only influencing public opinion in unprecedented ways, but is also creating multidimensional problems. Social media has become a prime weapon for character assassination and the primary vehicle for spreading misinformation. Blackmail, obscene content and falsehoods are spreading unchecked across these platforms. Bot armies are manipulating public opinion. Rumours and propaganda are disseminated in an instant, leaving the public confused.
This is not just a problem in Bangladesh. Across the world, social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have become synonymous with growing public concern. Consequently, many countries have introduced measures to curb the misuse of social media. At the heart of these initiatives is the effort to bring these platforms under legal accountability.
To prevent the unchecked misuse of social media, cybercrime and the spread of falsehoods, many countries impose hefty fines on social media companies. In Europe, the United States and India, these platforms operate under the laws of the respective countries. As a result, many of them have been able to bring cybercrime largely under control.
Bangladesh, however, appears helpless. On the one hand, there are no effective laws to tackle cybercrime, while on the other, platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Google have virtually no accountability here. Consequently, Bangladesh has become a safe haven for cybercriminals. Yet it was never meant to be this way.
The total number of internet users in Bangladesh exceeds 100 million. According to statistics from June this year, nearly 76 million people use Facebook, while around 70 million use YouTube. Facebook and YouTube earn enormous revenues from Bangladesh every year. According to experts in the sector, Meta earns more than Tk8,000 crore annually from Facebook users in Bangladesh, while YouTube’s annual earnings exceed Tk5,000 crore.
Bangladesh is therefore a huge market for companies such as Meta and Google. Few countries offer social media platforms such a large user base. Yet despite generating enormous revenues from Bangladesh, these companies remain beyond the government’s effective control and are not directly accountable to local authorities.
If objectionable, indecent or content harmful to national interests is posted on these platforms, Bangladesh can only request Facebook to remove it. However, whether such content is taken down depends entirely on Facebook’s own assessment.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) does not have the authority to remove objectionable content directly or block social media posts. Instead, it can only send requests to the platform operators.
The platforms generally respond only when the reported content violates their own community standards and guidelines. Even then, they respond to fewer than one-third of the requests submitted by Bangladesh. Moreover, they often take so long to remove the content that, by the time it disappears, the damage has already been done. Bangladesh appears to be held hostage by Facebook and YouTube. These platforms increasingly resemble the East India Companies of the modern age.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said legal provisions will be introduced to compel international technology companies, including Facebook’s parent company Meta, to remove harmful content within a specified timeframe. He also said the government is working to amend the Cyber Security Act to combat rumours, misinformation, defamatory content, and misleading photographs, videos and audio generated using artificial intelligence (AI) on social media.
However, experts argue that unless these companies establish offices in Bangladesh, they will remain outside the effective jurisdiction of Bangladeshi law. No matter how stringent domestic legislation may be, it cannot be enforced beyond Bangladesh’s borders. Yet a significant proportion of the propaganda targeting Bangladesh is currently being orchestrated from abroad. No matter how tough the law, it cannot reach those spreading misinformation from overseas.
Therefore, the only effective way to combat cybercrime and coordinated online propaganda is to require companies such as Meta and Google to establish offices in Bangladesh. Many countries around the world have addressed the misuse of social media in precisely this way.
Several governments have taken a tough stance against social media platforms, even temporarily suspending their services to compel them to establish local offices. Mexico, for example, faced serious problems with criminal networks using Facebook. After the government raised its concerns with the company but received no meaningful response, it temporarily suspended Facebook’s operations, eventually prompting the company to establish a local office.
Germany similarly made it clear that Facebook would not be allowed to operate unless it opened an office in the country and complied with German law.
This is how many European and Western countries have brought social media platforms under legal accountability. Their laws also provide for substantial financial penalties. As a result, if obscene, indecent or violent content is published, the platform itself may be held liable. Meta now pays millions of dollars in fines every year. Consequently, the company has a strong incentive to monitor its platforms more closely to prevent the spread of misinformation. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways to curb harmful content.
Although the situation in Bangladesh may be more severe today than it was elsewhere, many countries once faced similar challenges. They addressed them by introducing appropriate legislation and bringing companies such as Facebook and YouTube within their legal frameworks. India, for instance, required these companies to establish offices in the country, making them subject to Indian law. As a result, false, baseless and fabricated content can be addressed more quickly. Posts intended to harass or blackmail individuals are also removed more swiftly.
In India, social media is regulated primarily through legislation and stringent government guidelines. This framework aims to curb fake news, safeguard national security and protect personal data. Through the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, India has achieved considerable success in limiting misinformation, rumours and violent content while maintaining freedom of expression.
Many countries have required Meta and Google to establish branch offices within their jurisdictions. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta, Facebook’s parent company, US$263 million, equivalent to approximately Tk3,156 crore at an exchange rate of Tk120 per US dollar. The French government fined Facebook and Google a combined €210 million. Australia also enacted strict legislation last year to tackle rumours, character assassination and the spread of hate on social media.
Yet social media platforms in Bangladesh remain effectively beyond the reach of the law. There is no authority capable of regulating them directly. Neither Meta nor Google has a branch office in Bangladesh, despite the fact that more than 60 million people in the country use Facebook. According to Meta’s own data, Bangladesh ranks tenth in the world for Facebook users. Yet the company has established offices in countries with significantly smaller user bases, including Singapore, Ireland and Israel.
Bangladesh must therefore follow the same path. We must address the problem at its source. The parent companies of major social media platforms should be required to establish offices in Bangladesh and be made accountable under Bangladeshi law. Otherwise, the information terrorism spreading through social media risks undermining all of our national achievements.