Bangladesh Police warn against liking or sharing posts inciting communal hatred on social media

Be careful when you like or share a social media post or photo, containing hateful message, because police consider your preferences as crime.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch spokesman Monirul Islam sounded the warning at a media briefing on Wednesday.

A man was arrested in the city on charges of inciting communal hatred through Facebook on Tuesday night.

He also said 10-12 so-called news portals, too, were out to incite communal hatred.

The news portals were under their watch, Islam said.

He said it would be a crime, too, if someone ‘like’ to or share such post or photo even without understanding what they are doing.

“But if a tagged post is shared without the knowledge of the person tagged, it will not be considered as a crime,” he added.

DB Additional Commissioner Islam urged all internet users to be aware of the matter.

An investigation found that communal hatred was incited through Facebook before the attack on Buddhists and temples at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar on Sep 29, 2012.

Police arrested SM Sakhwat Hossain from Paltan for inciting communal hate on social media.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Md Muntasirul Islam said he was trying to incite religious hatred between Muslims and Buddhists through his posts on Facebook.

In a briefing at the DMP headquarters, Islam said a case had been filed under the Information and Communication Technology Act with Paltan police against the ‘so-called editor of an online news portal'.

The police official said, “We believe he was inspired by a sect to publish photographs on his platform of various incidents around the world claiming they were evidence of tortures conducted on Muslims in Myanmar.”

Islam continued they would be investigating who were funding the online portal to fan communal hatred.