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The power of social media

A K Azad || risingbd.com

Published: 11:00, 30 November 2015   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
The power of social media

A K Azad: Social media has become an integral part of life online as social websites and applications proliferate. Generally people use social media in order to keep in touch with family or friends; or to either be informed or to inform others about a variety of topics within the realm of entertainment, news, or any other topic of their choosing.

 

With the blessings of social media, the world feels smaller now that people are able to use cellular phones and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Viber to stay up to date on the happenings of their family, friends, and the world in general.


At present, use of social media is a part and parcel of our life. And that’s why many people use social media in alternative ways even after it was banned by the government.

 

In the present time, social media has become so much influential in all sectors such as in politics, economics education and even after in judicial process.

 

Most of us are already aware of what social media activism is. It can be simply put as movements (often about social justice) in the social media sphere. That article your friend shared, to raise awareness for marginalised communities, it is social media activism. That petition your friend made to hold the government accountable for something wrong, it is social media activism. That one status about Addommay Bangladesh, that created awareness in society and was able to brought attention of prime minister and later the people accused of human trafficking were released from jail, it is social media activism.

 

The line between what can be considered social media activism and what cannot is pretty murky. So, it isn`t all that surprising that people are always ready to question whether social media activism is even activism at all. To be fair, that`s a legitimate concern. But it`s safe to say that in the year of 2015 when so many of us live on online, social media activism does have an impact. Activism is defined by achieving results, so does social media activism fulfill that criterion?

 

Yes and here`s how. Back in July this year in Kumargaon of Sylhet, a Facebook post chilled people to the bone. It was a news story of 13-year-old boy Rajon who was beaten mercilessly by a group of men until he succumbed.

 

 

 The ill-fated boy Rakibul Islam Rakib

 

 

On the same day of Rajon murder verdict, a Khulna court also sentenced two people to death for brutally killing teenage boy Rakibul Islam Rakib.

 

Just after three months of the crime, the court handed down the verdict. It was also prompted by social media.

 

In wake of child killings in the country, the judiciary becomes more aware of the justice that was also seen in Jamalpur. Additional District and Sessions Judge Wahiduzzaman Shikdar recently sentenced five men to death for the killing of a seven-year-old child Mottasim who was strangled to death in 2001.

 

On the contrary, the killings of children those were not made viral in social media, no visible headway was seen in the cases.

 

Some days later of Rajon killing, one morning in the capital’s Hazaribagh area, a 16-year-old boy Raja was beaten to death at a local political party heavyweight’s home after being accused of stealing the BCL (Bangladesh Chhatra League) leader’s laptop and mobile phone from his residence.

 

However, it is the death of Rajon, whose face is plastered all over national newspapers. The men allegedly responsible for his death have finally got death sentence within four months.

 

But there is no lead in Raja murder case. Why is Bangladesh mourning the deaths of these two children so differently? The most significant factor that separates the senseless killings of these boys, Raja and Rajon, is the simple existence of video evidence of the latter’s death, filmed on one of the attacker’s mobile phones and uploaded on Facebook that went viral. It is the power of social media.

 

I should mention here another killing of a boy named Toki in Naraynganj who went missing on March 6, 2013, and his body was recovered from the Shitalakhya River on March 8, 2013.

 

After three years, we could not see any visible progress in the case, as it was not widely circulated on social media.

 

Not only that, justice is still elusive for another Samiul’s father who was killed in Adabor of Mohammadpur in the capital on June 23, 2010.

 

Five years have elapsed after the brutal murder of four-year-old Samiul Azim Wafi in the capital’s Adabar area but the trial has not yet ended.

 

Samiul’s mother Ayesha Humayra Esha killed her son in her house as her illicit relationship with Md Shamsuzzaman Arif alias Bakku was exposed to the boy. Arif was an accomplice in the killing.  The case is still pending at Dhaka’s Fourth Special Judge’s Court due to non-appearance of prosecution witnesses in court for giving depositions.

 

We should raise voices on social media to ensure justice in the cases, as social media have a strong and an influential impact to make awareness among people that can prompt judiciary to ensure justice.

 

risingbd/DHAKA/Nov 30, 2015/Azad/Augustin Sujan

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