Internet literacy: where does Bangladesh stand?

As far as access to internet is concerned, Bangladesh has made decent progress. Going by the latest figures of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there are more than 79 million internet subscribers in the country.

At the start of this year, that figure was 67 million and in 2015, it was around 40 million. The statistics show that in the span of three years, the number of internet subscribers in Bangladesh has doubled. While this is a positive change, the question remains as to how prepared the country is for this shift. What is the state of internet literacy in Bangladesh? 

Some of the major components of the definition of internet literacy include the ability to address illegal and harmful contents on the internet appropriately and the ability to protect one's privacy.

Let's take the attack that took place in Harkoli Thakurpara village of Rangpur last Friday into focus. What began with a mere Facebook post ended up with 30 houses being set on fire in the area and several injured. The worst part about the entire episode was that the families from the village did not have any idea why they were attacked.

The profile picture and the name of the Facebook account belonged to a person who had been away from the village for four years and the police say that there is a chance that the account might be fake and that the person in question may not have written anything that demeaned Islam in the first place.

Apart from sharing the post online, copies of that post were printed and shared in mosques as well. There was a campaign of sorts, with loudspeakers and human chains, in the area, which eventually led to the aggression.

Now, it is not as though the attack took place solely because of the Facebook post. In fact, had it not been the post, the people responsible for the violence would have probably used any other medium to trigger the attack.  However, using Facebook as a scapegoat for such attacks is increasingly becoming popular because of the response it brings.

The attack in Thakurpara village is not the first time that social media has been used to trigger violence in Bangladesh. Similar cases were witnessed in Brahmanbaria last year and in Ramu in 2012.

According to Professor Dr Sumon Rahman, who works at the Media Studies and Journalism Department of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, the credibility of websites like Facebook or blogs—or the lack thereof—is still not clear to many.

“Many equate Facebook with established newspapers. They think that content posted on Facebook has the same authenticity as something in a newspaper. Therefore, when they saw the post being shared online or the printed copies of the Facebook post, many of them thought that it was true. This was a major point that influenced the attackers,” explains Professor Rahman, speaking about the incident in Rangpur. 

Not just a rural phenomenon

It is not just people from the rural areas who have difficulty gauging the credibility of the information that they get online. The issue persists in the urban areas as well. And no sector portrays this problem better than the media. Journalists are supposed to act as gatekeepers and publish news pieces after thorough investigation. However, it is not uncommon to find journalists publishing news pieces based on unverified sources.

For instance, recently Star Weekend had written a satire on the arrest of Subodh, the artist whose wall paintings have created plenty of fervour in the capital and someone who is yet to come out in the open. Unfortunately, a number of news websites, including prominent newspapers, thought that this was an actual news report and republished it as a real news update on their respective online pages, without reading the entire article or verifying the source. It was also probably the most shared article of Star Weekend in recent times, but unfortunately for the wrong reasons.

A man from the Harkoli Thakurpara village is devastated after religious zealots burnt his house down. Photo: Star File

Similarly, earlier this year, a group of Bangladeshi journalists, just to have some fun with their colleagues, spread a rumour that Bangladesh's first ever tour of India would be called Naimur-Ganguly trophy after the players Naimur Rahman and Sourav Ganguly. One of the journalists even put up a Facebook status referring to the name of the trophy.

The next day, one of the country's most circulated newspapers published the news, without any verification. Journalists from India caught on to the news and republished it there. Sourav Ganguly himself believed the news. It was posed as a question in his popular television programme “Dadagiri”. All this happened within a week. The rate at which fake news can travel is unbelievable at times.

The above examples suggest that while there has been a boom in the online media sector, the quality of a number of online media organisations remains questionable. 

Teenagers have it the worst

Privacy is another component of internet literacy and numbers suggest that young girls are the worst affected in this regard. Many of them aren't aware of the dangers of leaking sensitive information online.

Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act has been heavily criticised because of the way it has prevented journalists and many others from speaking out.

However, the public prosecutor of the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka will tell you that more than 75 percent of the cases under this law are filed by teenage girls.  Most of them file cases accusing their ex-boyfriends or people from the community of posting compromising pictures of them online without their permission.

Abul Mansur Mohammad Sharf Uddin who is the Controller of Certifying Authorities of the ICT division and has headed projects on spreading awareness regarding cybercrimes against women and girls admits that a lot needs to be done in the field of internet literacy.

“Using the internet is like a knife. You can use it for useful aspects and you can use it for bad things as well. We have to make people aware of that. And so, internet literacy is a must,” he says.

“Have a look at the case of South Korea. They are number one in governance. That's because all their services are digitised. In Bangladesh, we provide 125 services online and we are increasing them. While that is good, we do not have many initiatives to make people aware of the dangers of the internet.

“Most of the initiatives are still in the planning stages. However, as far as the implementation aspect is concerned, that has not happened. These programmes will take place steadily,” he adds.  

The future

Spreading awareness is the only way ahead. The faster the government can get their programmes running, the faster such situations can be resolved.

Aside from the government, there are several universities that have begun working on the concept of internet literacy. “Resilient Universities, Resilient Students” is one such project that the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh is working on.

“Under this project, we train both the faculty and the students with regards to online sources, internet privacy and a number of other related issues. No matter what course the faculty takes, he or she is supposed to dedicate a small portion of the course's curriculum to internet literacy,” explains Dr Rahman.

“It's interesting. Through this project, students get to know, for instance, what kind of online tools they can use to check the information that they receive through social media. They also get to know more about their privacy settings and a number of other related issues. It's all about being resilient,” he adds.

Dhaka University Professor, Dr Gitiara Nasrin, however, believes that there is a dearth of research in this field. “Several countries have taken many initiatives to help their citizens become more literate online. But we are yet to get there. There has not been a high-level research conducted regarding internet literacy in Bangladesh.

“I personally feel that the government has to play a role here, because it won't be easy to conduct research like these without any funding,” she opines.

With changing times come different challenges. There was a time in the past when the challenge was to merely provide a majority of the country with access to internet. With close to 80 million internet subscribers in Bangladesh now, the scenario has changed. Judging by the way problems related to internet illiteracy are sprouting up every now and then, drastic steps need to be taken to make people more aware.

Follow Naimul Karim @naimonthefield