Social Networking Sites and The Blizzards of Counterfeit Content

Freedom to spread racial hatred on social media is not freedom of expression by any means. Recently in Geneva, 25 UN human rights experts said this in a joint statement. In the statement, experts said that the use of racist words has increased significantly since the recent acquisition of Twitter. Through this hatred is being spread against the people of Africa. A strong accountability system is needed through social media in this regard.

In the first days of X or Twitter's acquisition, especially in the first 12 hours of acquisition, the use of hateful and racist words increased almost 500 times than before, the United Nations experts said in a statement citing the report of Rutgers University's 'Network Contagion Research Institute. UN experts said Twitter called the hate campaign a mockery, saying there was no room for hatred. But the hatred spewed against people of African descent is of great concern and it demands a human rights-centered response.

The statement said, not only on Twitter but also on other social media platforms such as Meta, such hate speech is not a concern. Many who oppose hate speech claim that there is a gap in social media policy commitments and implementation, particularly in Facebook's approval of electoral disinformation, discussion of conspiracy theories, and inflammatory advertising. Recent studies by Global Witness and Sum of us show that Meta cannot block certain ads.

UN experts said that in the wake of many complaints, Meta took the initiative to launch an important mechanism such as the Monitoring Board in 2020. It may take a long time to see the effectiveness of this board. Social media requires continued commitment at the highest level to review and revise its processes to address the incitement of racial hatred online. UN experts who gave statements included the president and members of the UN Working Group on African Descent, Business, Transnational Corporations and Human Rights.

It is now a reality that in our country as well, social media has gained immense popularity in the contemporary world. On the one hand, its excessive practical importance, on the other hand, the level of abuse is creating an unwanted wall of ugliness-skepticism-fear in the entire society. At the crossroads of bad culture, false baseless propaganda of politics-religion-economy-general social phenomena, communalism, malice, intolerance, violence, conflict, and separation are becoming obstacles in the smooth flow of life.

The professional-intellectual-civilian personalities with various negative statements are creating an anarchic situation. This social conflict prolongs unbearable suffering in the lives of the masses. It is very important to analyze how much the deviation of the creative-thinking-human-moral character of the young society under the cover of modern information technology will play a role in building a normal society in the future.

There is no room for doubt that the beautiful woman will fall into the gulf of deep darkness if she fails to understand the different forms of social media dependency which is taking a different form of the horrible reality that social communication dependency is taking away from the rich textbook- biographical knowledge and rational reading of world-renowned personalities.

In 2010, the famous British writer Howard Jacobson, who won the Booker Prize, expressed fear, "Facebook-Twitter will make children imprudent in 20 years." Children of the future generation will be illiterate due to the dominance of various social media including Facebook, and Twitter. With the use of smart phones and a large number of social media including Facebook, and Twitter, the communication method of the young generation is changing dramatically and because of all this, they are losing the habit of reading books. According to criminologist experts, social media has recently become our daily companion.

This medium is affecting our human qualities. Many are getting involved in crimes like money laundering, aggressive games, and rape. Many are mentally unstable. Due to its excessive use, the risk of various diseases including anger-anger-depression-depression-loneliness-frustration-heart disease is increasing. According to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is concerned about the misuse of social media, 'social media is not for wasting time. It can be really beneficial if used properly. But if you just sit here and digest whatever is shown, then it won't happen.'

In recent times, some people said to be based abroad have started cyber warfare to create unrest in the country. According to the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, besides making positive contributions, many expatriate and migrant Bangladeshis are engaged in propaganda against Bangladesh. The image of Bangladesh is being questioned due to their frequent presence and dissemination of anti-national objectionable comments and speeches in various media including social media.

Due to the various legal complexities of the countries where they are staying, it is often difficult to take action against them. The list of terrorists engaged in these heinous activities has already been sent to the concerned Bangladesh Missions. Bangladesh embassies will apply to the respective governments to bring them under the law of those countries and bring them to justice.


Khadija Jahan Tanni is Sub
Editor at The Asian Age.