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Editorial

Social media reflects rise of intolerance

We must respect different views and philosophies


Bangladeshpost
Published : 16 Nov 2021 10:13 PM | Updated : 17 Nov 2021 01:13 PM

Nowadays, digital privacy of people is being hampered day in day out with telephone conversations, personal chats leaks and social media accounts getting hacked. This forgery of playing or blackmailing people with their privacy must stop.

On top of that, the level of tolerance in Bangladesh is shrinking day by day with a lot of hate speech or offensive remarks on social media against individuals, communities or organizations. 


The government should make it compulsory

 for the digital and social media platforms 

to clarify their privacy guidelines


According to a study by UNDP earlier this year, followers of violent extremists have become increasingly active in cyberspace. The number of followers of such extremist sites tripled in 2020 in Bangladesh reaching 3.8 million. While extremist digital threats are not necessarily new, the risk of abusive and intolerant content is getting much worse.

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The experts addressed some of the factors that contribute to the increase in intolerance such as discrimination based on society, economy, community or status; lack of accurate information that may lead to emotional or mental triggering; lack of self-awareness and understanding of emotions and feelings; the need for quick response that may lead to intolerant or disrespectful behaviour and lack of empathy or acceptance especially in terms of differing opinions.

We also need to be aware of how to keep our digital life safe.  For that, we have to be aware of everything we do on digital platforms. The government should make it compulsory for the digital and social media platforms to clarify their data usage and privacy guidelines.

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