Case over social media ‘rumour’, 200 FB accounts listed

About 200 Facebook accounts have been listed in connection to a case filed over “spreading rumour” in the social media during the recent quota reform agitation in Dhaka.

The lawsuit filed under ICT Act, by Sub-Inspector SM Shahjalal, a member of cyber security unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, at Ramna Police Station, implicates unspecified number of anonymous persons.

Nazmul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of the cyber security division, disclosed the filing of the case to The Daily Star today and said there has been development in its investigation.

“Already, about 200 Facebook accounts have been identified who were associated in spreading rumours during the quota reform demonstration,” he said.

As hundreds of thousands, mostly students and job seekers, converged into the quota reform movement all over Bangladesh, some misleading and false information were seen circulating on the internet.

They included “death of a student in Dhaka University agitation” and “severing the tendon of a female student at Sufia Kamal Hall” in the university, the police officer told The Daily Star.

Including the latest, a total of five cases have been filed against demonstrators who have been agitating for lowering the 56 per cent quota provision at civil service – down to 10 per cent.

Notably, the cases are being filed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, amid countrywide mass protests, declared that there will be no more quota reservation in the civil service.