How social media mobilised netizens as vigilantes in a “lawless” country

August 5. The day the student-led mass protests did the unthinkable in toppling the previous regime, with the aspiration to build back the country from the ground up - one brick at a time. However, amidst the celebrations that adorned the streets, nameless hooligans, taking advantage of the lawlessness, wreaked havoc at targeted locations around the country, destroying government offices, homes of former government leaders, public statues, and worst of all, religious monuments and temples.

While the damage had been done at places like the historic Bangabandhu residence and statues of the 1971 martyrs, a combined effort from netizens across the country played a key part in controlling further damage done to the likes of the Dhakeshwari National Temple. Furthermore, social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp helped netizens spread awareness regarding arson, burglary, and looting in certain areas of the capital, forming community-based patrol groups to uphold security and justice. Let's take a look at how social media played a unique role in mobilising netizens in a "lawless" country.

Defending the Dhakeshwari National Temple

While there have been countless public posts on Facebook about the significance of defending Bangladesh's national temple from wrongdoers, it was a post by Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah, a concerned netizen, that gained the most traction. The post, which started as a call to action to defend the important religious architecture, eventually gathered over 20 residents in successfully guarding the temple.

"I was depressed after witnessing public property being burned in the name of celebration," says Abdullah. "I thought, something needs to be done, and started messaging my friends to accommodate guarding the Dhakeshwari temple." Abdullah, a CSE student from BRAC University, lives near the temple, and his concern led him to openly ask anyone on Facebook to help guard the temple.

"I mainly posted on Facebook to call out more of my friends. I never expected the post would get this level of reach. I was overwhelmed when I saw the local 'huzur' completing his Fazr prayers in front of the temple," says Abdullah when describing his experience. He adds that more initiatives need to happen during these uncertain times, especially in remote areas. People can use Facebook and other social media platforms to share regular updates, he explains, saying that in the absence of law and order, general citizens have come out to tackle such complex duties.

Read more

Robberies in Dhaka: Residents stand vigil through the night

Community-based alerts

The past few weeks were anything but certain, especially when it came to road conditions. During these times, certain Facebook groups such as Travelers of Bangladesh and Traffic Alert shone, allowing netizens to share updates on road conditions in specific parts of Dhaka and Bangladesh and help plan a safe and hassle-free journey. While these groups are usually active with help-seeking posts, their significance was especially felt during a time when in-house raids and crackdowns on streets were commonplace.

Following the resignation of the ex-PM, certain roads in the capital faced either an influx of traffic or were closed. Netizens could check these groups before heading out to get a thorough idea of which routes to avoid and which roads to use to reach their destination effectively. Such a crowd-controlled traffic update system proves to be more useful than a dedicated coordinates app like Google Maps - which can only share real-time updates and not provide specific reasons as to why or how certain roads may be closed.

Aside from traffic updates though, these groups helped netizens ask for general help, especially in the case of emergencies. One newer Facebook group that was created in the wake of the unfathomable violence on Bangladeshi minorities, 'Resistance against discrimination', was particularly a community-favourite hub where netizens freely shared any help posts concerning minorities. Created on the now-historic date of August 5, the group is one of the many examples of Bangladeshi netizens' effort in combating misinformation regarding attacks on minorities. It also serves as an open space where members can share crime alerts and important notifications on their communities.

Mahiya Tabassum, creator of the 'Resistance against discrimination' Facebook group, states that the group helped form a volunteer-run protection team that, even without support from law enforcement officials, was able to personally patrol designated areas. "Since misinformation was running rampant then, reports of crime from netizens were hard to verify," says Mahiya, "Since the group consists of protesters and volunteers from all over Dhaka, crime reports shared in the group were immediately verified by area representatives. After which, we were able to form groups to patrol areas with reported criminal incidents. This helped people feel safe and secured even in their own neighbourhoods."

Area-based WhatsApp groups to prevent burglary

With the Bangladeshi police force suspending their duties following the ex-PM's resignation, many unnamed opportunists grabbed the chance to commit a series of burglaries around the country. Certain areas of the capital, such as Mohammadpur and Uttara, were hit the worst, with netizens reporting a sudden increase in looting and burglary across unarmed houses.

However, netizens couldn't take this sitting down; and took to WhatsApp to form area-based community groups to not only spread public awareness, but also form patrol teams that would share periodic updates and, when needed, would defend their neighbourhood through their own unified measure.

Mynul Haque, an admin of the Greater Ramna community group on WhatsApp, shares that these area-based groups have been effective in helping people mobilise. With these groups, people can coordinate where to form night patrol teams, and instantly inform whenever trouble arises. "There was a bigger, unified community at first, but we started creating smaller groups for more control over local crime alerts. Currently, we have dedicated teams in crowded areas such as Mohakhali, Hatirjheel, Banani, Tejgaon, Uttara, Adabor, etc. There are other smaller local groups all across Dhaka," says Mynul.

Mynul, a BBA graduate from Sonargaon University, says that these WhatsApp groups started forming as soon as August 6, when the "dakat" incidents were at their peak. He adds that aside from coordinating patrol shifts and area-based crime reports, a lot of these community-run WhatsApp groups were created among students, when they began to get on the streets to control traffic.

So far, the Greater Ramna group that Mynul has been a part of has thwarted 20 to 30 criminal-based activities around the areas they patrol at night. After catching criminals, Mynul describes that they are handed over to nearby stationed army personnel. He adds that among the 100 or so people that form the main patrol group in the Ramna area, most are situated in Shantinagar, with others frequently assigned to guard nearby areas like Motijheel and Moghbazar. All their communication is done through WhatsApp.

Thanks to the unified effort, many citizens can now sleep feeling safer at night, knowing that citizens, just like them, are out there upholding justice, in any way they can. Despite the lack of official law enforcement, the modern age of social media has shown that netizens are not afraid to defend themselves; armed with the most powerful weapon of them all: unity.