Dhaka, Bangladesh – July 18, 2024. Anti-quota protesters clash with pro-government protesters during a protest. Shutterstock
Abu Sayed, 25, stood before the police with his arms outstretched and unarmed, almost trusting that he would not be shot. He died when two Bangladeshi police officers, standing 15 meters away, fired three consecutive shots at him in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun. Sayed was one of thousands of Bangladeshi protesters who had been marching in the streets against the government’s discriminatory policies.
Student-led demonstrations have been taking place across the country since early July, calling for reforms to the popular quota system for civil service posts, under which 56 percent of posts are reserved for quota holders. The protests follow a high court decision to reinstate the quota system, which was scrapped by executive order following similar protests in 2018. Protesters argue that the current allocation of 30 percent of government jobs to the descendants of military veterans unfairly favors ruling party supporters at a time of growing youth unemployment, and they are calling for urgent reforms.
Peaceful protests have been met with hostility and police brutality, with around 180 people, mostly students, reportedly killed over the past 10 days. Said was one of the first to be killed, and a video of his killing quickly spread on social media. People across the country took to the streets, calling for justice and accountability. The government responded with a harsh crackdown on protesters, including the use of live and rubber bullets, and imposed a nationwide curfew. All internet services were shut down indefinitely on July 18, plunging the country’s 170 million people into an information blackout.
A crisis that has existed for years
The worsening situation in Bangladesh is a sign of growing public dissatisfaction with the Awami League government’s governance and its inability to address policy and political crises. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has surrounded herself with followers in court during her 15 years of uninterrupted rule, seems to have lost touch with voters, especially the younger generation, who face extreme uncertainties including rising unemployment, corruption, inflation, and unaffordable cost of living. The erosion of the rule of law and human rights has led to the collapse of institutions that cannot function independently or in the public interest, creating a huge trust deficit between the state and its people. The prime minister could have acknowledged these inadequacies, but instead he resorted to violence, putting the country’s future at odds with his government.
The Awami League government, which came to power after the 2008 general elections, has focused heavily on the promise of digitizing the country and using technology to build political capital among its 50 million youth population. In 15 years, internet penetration has risen from 3% to 40%, while the country’s telecommunications regulator claims it is over 80% of the population. Mobile financial services grew 46% between 2020 and 2022 alone. A fast-growing technology sector generates $1.4 billion in export revenues annually. With the support of the World Bank and development financing partners, almost 90% of the country’s adults have national ID cards, which are increasingly being supplemented with biometric data, “putting the people online” by connecting them to all government and ICT-related services.
The success of digitalization in Bangladesh masks a significant tightening of control over digital infrastructure and services that has occurred over the past two decades. When the Awami League government came to power, it amended the Communications Act to require telecommunications and internet service operators to provide unfettered access to personal data and lawful interception in exchange for a license to operate in the country. The 2021 bill limited the independence of the telecom regulator as a statutory body and gave more powers to a politicized ministry, including the appointment of its chairman. This allows politicians to arbitrarily order internet service providers to shut down networks, block certain websites, and issue content takedown requests to social media platforms where corruption or human rights violations have been identified. These extrajudicial orders are often conveyed over the phone without procedural safeguards or documentation, creating a culture of impunity and undermining transparency.
In the past decade alone, various similar laws and licensing instruments have given Bangladesh government agencies unprecedented access to citizens’ personal data and digital lives. Amendments to Bangladesh’s Information and Communications Technology Act (ICTA) in 2013 expanded government control over online speech and privacy, including provisions that allow police to arrest anyone suspected of sharing anti-government or defamatory content on digital platforms without any evidence or due process. Although ICTA’s controversial provisions were replaced by the Digital Security Act (DSA) in 2018 and subsequently the Cyber Security Act (CSA) in 2023, human rights groups claim that these provisions remain criminalizing speech that “disturbs public order” or “tarnishes the image of the state,” and are routinely used as a weapon by the ruling party and its supporters to suppress political speech and detain activists. Between 2018 and 2023, around 1,500 cases were filed under the DSA, of which 451 were against journalists. Additionally, these laws give discretionary powers to law enforcement agencies, such as to search and seize devices, compel disclosure of passwords, and require state-authorized interception of imported network devices. None of these obligations apply to public agencies, whose data records may be considered critical information infrastructure and exempt from information requests by journalists and human rights defenders.
A 2023 Haaretz investigation found that the Bangladeshi government had purchased Israeli surveillance technology despite the country having no diplomatic ties. Another 2021 Al Jazeera investigation found that it had purchased spy technology from Pixis, an Israeli-based company run by a former intelligence officer. The purchase included IMSI catchers that would allow intelligence agencies to intercept mobile traffic and track location during protests like those erupting across the country today.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Bangladesh’s ambitious plan for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses on leveraging a centralized biometric ID system to enable poverty reduction, job creation, and economic mobility. The current ID database is widely used to receive government services, buy SIM cards, and open bank accounts, resulting in an interoperable data architecture. Last year, parliament passed the National ID Registration Act, transferring ownership of the ID database, initially created for voter registration, from the Election Commission to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The transfer gives law enforcement and intelligence agencies unlimited access to personal data. In fact, a Wired investigation found that the National Telecommunications Surveillance Centre, an intelligence agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, had leaked 1.2 million data of Bangladeshis, including fingerprint photos, blood types, and vehicle registrations, online and sold them on a Telegram channel. While it is unclear why spy organisations are collecting, storing, and accessing such a large amount of sensitive personal data of ordinary citizens, it raises alarms that the digitisation of all aspects of individuals’ lives is being exploited to create an ever-expanding sophisticated surveillance ecosystem.
The government’s relentless pursuit to centralize control of digital infrastructure and services has not happened in a vacuum. Over the years, the commercial sector, including American technology companies, multilateral financial institutions, and civil society, have caved to the demands in exchange for lucrative contracts, privileged access, or disregard for regulatory checks and balances. For example, in 2021 Oracle signed a contract with the Ministry of Information Technology to provide the government with “sovereignly hosted” cloud solutions, despite ongoing criticism of the country’s draft data protection bill. The bill mandates local data storage for domestic and foreign organizations, which civil society argued would seriously exacerbate surveillance and censorship.
Open the curtains
And today, when the young people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the country’s digital promise used technology to demand accountability and justice, the government turned its back on them and pulled one kill switch that surgically and effectively shut down the internet across the country. In the 100 hours that Bangladesh went offline, vital services like financial transactions, electricity, healthcare, etc. were halted. The digital commerce sector is estimated to have suffered losses of $5 million per day. Media organisations were in a virtual blackout, with no alternative sources to keep the public informed of the events. In a recent statement, Telenor Group publicly expressed concern over the government ordering Bangladesh’s mobile operator Grameenphone to suspend 4G and 3G services, the first time in its 25-year history of operations in the country.
But this outrage is too little, too late. Between 2019 and 2023, the country experienced multiple internet outages without any transparency from its subscribers, nor any substantial opposition from the country’s private sector or fragmented civil society. For too long, the fundamental rights of its citizens have been traded for business deals, and the government has systematically infiltrated the core infrastructure that shapes the internet, giving it absolute power over its access and use.
In the midst of the government shutdown, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh ordered in an emergency hearing to reduce the quota to 7%. However, the situation has moved beyond a call for a fairer recruitment system to a rebellion against years of heavy-handed government rule that has denied its citizens their fundamental rights and dignity and oppressed those seeking relief and transparency. On the eve of July 23, the government finally decided to “bring the internet back” in a very limited way, including keeping social media platforms blocked, thus opening the gates to hell. With videos and testimonials of killing and destruction by police and government-backed thugs everywhere, Bangladesh seemed to have woken up from the communications blackout, but it has fallen again into the apocalypse of democracy.
Bangladesh is at its most difficult crossroads since independence more than 50 years ago, born of a similarly violent student movement. The prime minister and his allies are caught in the middle, with little legitimacy from the younger generation who have shown extraordinary courage and sacrifice to expose generations of complicity in creating cracks in his rule. Perhaps his government still believes it can bounce back, just as it has covered up allegations of human rights abuses in the past. The power to expose the truth now lies with the country’s people, expatriates and international partners, who have a rare opportunity to act in the greater interest of the country’s future. At the very least, this should be a long-awaited wake-up call that the status quo is no longer working and that fundamental freedoms must not be traded for short-term solutions. If we let this go, we will all bleed.
