However in the last decade, new forms of media along with the internet have flourished. The single national television channel has been replaced by a myriad of private channels. More significantly, the internet, which even five years ago, was painfully slow, has developed to a point where its users are no longer children or young curious minds; but the elderly and the middle-aged who have regularly access social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The proliferation of internet users, especially social media users, means that voices of the public, previously echoed through the efforts of civil society members, has found newer mediums like politically-themed blogs and social media.
The largest use of internet as a site for contestation in the Bangladeshi context was perhaps witnessed in early 2013, during what is known as the “Shahbag Movement”. Scores of ordinary citizens, including the young and old,gathered at a city square for months in protest of a court decision related to a war-crimes trial. The protests related to both this trial and other impending war crimes trials where the crowd pleaded for the most severe sentence, the death penalty. Shahbag can trace it's roots to four decades of building public frustration at the unwillingness of past regimes to hold criminals accountable for war crimes. Due to party politics and past compromises on this issue, there is very little faith in the currently-ruling Awami League. The main opposition party, BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party), has allied with the country’s largest Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, whose top leaders are currently accused of war crimes in 1971. Therefore, the antipathy towards war criminals and a desire of the citizenry to put the scales of justice back in even order culminated in a leader-less mass movement largely facilitated by internet and new media. For those advocating for human rights and democracy, the issue of war crimes has remained a cause for bewilderment—and the debate surrounding the trial standards remain contentious. Although the Shahbagh movement has been disbanded due to its subsequent political encroachment, the velocity and the potential which it generated through the mass mobilization remains a clear and present danger for the state, should such an intense movement mobilize against its status quo.
Recently, the Government of Bangladesh turned to legislation for regulating internet freedom. The law specifically dealing with internet freedom and communication generally, is the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT) 2006. [1] The previous law already granted the government wide discretion in blocking any website on the grounds of sovereignty, integrity, security of the state, public order and safety and the prevention of incitement of any offence under the Act (section 46).
Illustration Faraz Aamer