Digital Bangladesh - A Boon or Threat to Digital Freedom? CPRsouth2014, Johannesburg, South Africa Dr. Faheem Hussain (faheem@sunykorea.ac.kr) Co Author and Presenter: Mashiat Mostafa (mashiat.mostafa@auw.edu.bd )
Overview The Background of Bangladesh s ICT Landscape, Citizens Mobilization And Vulnerability of Netizens Key Research Questions The Significance of This Research Analytical Framework Key Findings What s Next? 1
Background Source: Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, 2014 2
Key Research Questions How Social Media (Twitter) was used during Shahbag Movement - Bangladesh s first net influenced political event? Are new communities or space being created for dialogue between different stakeholders? Are the ICT policies and regulatory bodies ready to deal with Social Media and Net Freedom in politics? 3
Significance of the Research Confusing state of Digital Freedom in Bangladesh even after the concept of Digital Bangladesh Shut down of websites, blogs, unexpected period of block on social media, and online activists being harassed by government machinery Microblogging in online political participation and the related offline impacts do not adequately scrutinize its inception mechanisms within a political landscape, especially in developing societies settings Widely, use of Twitter in Bangladesh, during the first political mobilization Shahbag Movement. analyzing the effects, contextualized within developing countries or emerging economies 4
Analytical Framework Expert Elicitation : two Legal Experts, two Internet Service Providers, three New Media Activists, and two ICT industry leaders Real Time Data Collection : Using NodeXL, Information were collected about the interactions in Twitter during the political mobilization in Bangladesh, Shahbag Movement Data Collection of abuse, arrests, and harassments of online activists in Bangladesh from local leading newspapers and journals Graphical Network Analysis of Data: Gephi was used to map out the database of records collected through NodeXL for the social media interaction during the political mobilization 5
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Key Findings The Nature of Communication: To understand the graph the range of the degrees were between the ranges of 5-20. This helped us visualize key stakeholders Fewer and Newer Online Opinion Makers Connected Communities Exert Greater Influence Amended ICT Act and User Harassment 7
Figure 1shows the top #Shahbag networks with Indegrees represented by node color and Outdegrees represented by node size 8
Figure 2 shows the top broadcasters using #Shahbag with higher Betweenness-Centrality score(represented by node size) and higher Outdegrees (represented by node color, Outdegree Range 2) 9
Key Findings The Nature of Communication: To understand the graph the range of the degrees were between the ranges of 5-20. This helped us visualize key stakeholders Fewer and Newer Online Opinion Makers Connected Communities Exert Greater Influence Amended ICT Act and User Harassment 10
Figure 3 shows the top opinion makers using #Shahbag with higher Betweenness-Centrality score(represented by node size) and higher Indegrees (represented by node color, Indegree Range 2) 11
Key Findings The Nature of Communication: To understand the graph the range of the degrees were between the ranges of 5-20. This helped us visualize key stakeholders Fewer and Newer Online Opinion Makers Connected Communities Exert Greater Influence Amended ICT Act and User Harassment 12
Figure 4 shows the top five communities using Modularity Analysis. Here node sizes are based on Betweenness Centrality score and node colors represent different communities. Degree Range 3 13
Key Findings The Nature of Communication: To understand the graph the range of the degrees were between the ranges of 5-20. This helped us visualize key stakeholders Fewer and Newer Online Opinion Makers Connected Communities Exert Greater Influence Amended ICT Act and User Harassment 14
Draconian Amendment Non-bailable offence, Amended ICT ACT 2013 Anyone can be arrested without warrant Maximum of 10 years imprisonment and fines up to $125,000 Arrests 4 bloggers arrested, charged under Section 56 and 57 People (journalists, human rights activists, teachers, students) were arrested, charged, and sentenced for posting offensive status against the PM, Government Site Shutdowns/Blocks 4 Blogging Sites were shutdown without prior warrant/warning Blocking of YouTube from September 2012 for 260 days and subsequent unblocking without any explanation Facebook block due to public sharing of information against government 15
What s Next? What kind of Digital Freedom for Digital Bangladesh? Are They / We ready for a truly connected society? Vulnerability of users Uncertainty with growth How can the private entrepreneurs/civil society help? Further research to explore the impact on larger digital usage space 16
Thank You! Questions? 17