By Mohammad Tariqur Rahman
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X – they all have become a part of our lives. A couple of decades ago, this integration (read invasion) of social media in our daily lives was beyond our imagination. If not all, most of us are followers of someone on one or more of those social media platforms. While others have millions of followers.
Needless to say, social media also plays an important role in personal communication as well as in shaping our perception to interact with other individuals and build a social network. More than that it is used to grab and propagate information for academic, business, political, and entertainment purposes. In a nutshell, the impact of social media is beyond the perceived and observed changes in the information landscape.
The key to social media invasion in our lives lies in its electronic speed and unprecedented magnanimity of global attention. The era started during the 1980s and eventually came under the tag “Digital Revolution”.
Taking those advantages, political leaders and activists use social media to propagate their agenda. Thus social media has become a common tool for political propaganda.
Social media platforms are often flooded with fabricated or fake information. Like it or not, certain popular news agencies and popular social media influencers are also accused of spreading fake information using their social media accounts. Along with the authentic information, the misinformation and disinformation in social media are often multiplied to build fake narratives.
Social media influencers in a group or individually, have their own trick to attract social media users’ attention and play key roles in changing the political perception – consequently affecting the political landscape. Capitalizing on the “attention” economy in social media with the pursuit of virality, political social media influencers diffuse their content into their target social media group aimed at the target political agenda.
The target group uses their cognitive filter to process the information on social media and build their perception – which ultimately makes them act or react. Needless to say, not all have efficient and prudent cognitive filters. However, both the cognitive filter and the content control the collective behavior and response of the receivers – eventually, reshaping or rebuilding the political perception.
Whether social media-based content is harmful or violates the norms of a society or culture, could be controlled by the censorship policies of the respective social media platform.
At the same time, Governments have had the luxury of enjoying their authoritative directive using constitutional acts to impose restrictions on contents that are allowed to be circulated or access to social media that their citizens can subscribe to.
For example, FaceBook and YouTube content are currently banned in countries namely China, Iran, and North Korea.
There are records of other countries who blocked different social media transiently. For example, YouTube was blocked in Bangladesh in March 2009 after the circulation of a video revealing a display of anger by military personnel on the issue of mutiny by border guards in Dhaka during an alleged meeting with the former PM Sheikh Hasina.
Apart from the restrictions on social media usage, a new tool has emerged to deny citizens access to social media platforms. That is internet blackouts.
Recently, a nationwide internet blackout was imposed by the government of Bangladesh during the month-long anti-discrimination movement of the students. Aiming to create a communication blockade, the Government imposed an internet blackout on 18 July that lasted for more than a week.
It was assumed that the internet blackout was imposed to create a communication gap between the movement organizers throughout the country. It also helped the (recently ousted) government to hide the brutal crackdowns on the students and mass people. Indeed, the internet blackout did not help the long-standing dictatorial government to continue its fascist regime. On 5th August 2024, Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and left the country to have a temporary shelter in India.
To control political opposition, Pakistan started to maneuver the same trick. Since February, there has been a total or partial restriction on the use of social media. And now, the internet speed has reduced noticeably. In India, authorities have blocked internet access for about 27 million people in the state of Punjab to silence the violent protesting against the Badalpur sexual abuse case. Much earlier than those, the internet and telecommunication in Gaza were destroyed during this ongoing genocide by Israel since Dec 2023.
In principle, the purpose of such network disruption to create communication blackouts is the same as the age-old war-time trick where bridges and roads were destroyed to prevent transportation and communication of the army. However, political coup through communication blackouts in this digital era seems to have little or no impact in favor of those who use that trick.
On one hand, social media provides a platform to propagate political agenda. On the other hand, internet blackouts are becoming increasingly “popular” to suppress or hide that agenda. However; in the end, the truth finds its way to the global audience.
The author is a Professor at the Faculty of Dentistry, and Deputy Executive Director at the International Institute of Public Policy and Management, Universiti Malaya.
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