DU team wins Facebook anti-terrorism campaign competition

A team from Dhaka University have won the Facebook-based anti-extremism campaign competition held in Washington DC.

The six-member team won the P2P Facebook Global Digital Spring 2017 Award, the Bangladesh embassy said.

The competition was organised by Facebook in collaboration with US Homeland Security and the US Department of State on Wednesday.

The Dhaka University team won the first prize, leaving behind three other finalists. 

The other teams who made it to the competition's final round were from Nigeria, Spain and the Philippines. A total of 156 institutions participated in the worldwide competition.

“It’s a great news…Your success will inspire and guide our young generation,” Ambassador Mohammad Ziauddin said as he greeted the team at the Bangladesh Embassy on Thursday afternoon.

Embassy staffers joined the interactive session he held with the students on their current campaign.

Dr Asif M Shahan, associate professor, Department of Development Studies at Dhaka University led the team.

Other members are: Imran Ahsan, Department of Development Studies, Monzurul Alam Munna, Department of Health Economics, AKM Tousif Tanzim Ahmed, International Relations, Sousan Suah, International Relations and DM Rohis Uz Zaman, Department of Social Welfare.

The team campaigned for promoting tolerance and empathy through the development of critical thinking skills and extracurricular activities among the youths of Bangladesh encouraging them to think twice when interacting with others which they call ‘Think Twice, Act Wise’ campaign. It is accessible in Facebook and they have their own website also.

The P2P program utilises a prize competition model to harness the talent of university student teams around the globe to design, implement, and evaluate credible and authentic social media campaigns to counter online terrorist propaganda and hate speech.