Youth Policy Forum (YPF) and TikTok hosted their inaugural dialogue on 6 January to facilitate a safer virtual ecosystem for Bangladeshis alongside every Internet user.
The web dialogue “Towards a Digital Space” was held as a part of the official launching of the campaign “Safe Internet, Safe You”, reads a press release.
In a joint effort to discuss ways to maximise collective wellbeing in the digital era, valuable insights were found from differing perspectives as a diverse panel, including Bangladesh Child Health Research Foundation Director and Scientist Dr Senjuti Saha, Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto Assistant Professor Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, BRAC Youth Platform Curriculum and Material Development Specialist Sakib Bin Rashid, and Founder and Executive Director at Supporting People and Rebuilding Communities(SPaRc) Muktasree Chakma Sathi, came together.
BRAC Youth Platform Curriculum and Material Development Specialist Sakib Bin Rashid recognised the fact that the insane lack of active regulatory bodies in the Internet Space causes it to be a threat as he noted “In our physical lives, we see law enforcement bodies come in during times of injustice to sustain order. We don’t see that on the Internet.”
Panellist Muktasree Chakma Sathi at the time pointed out the concerns and threats online that are exclusively harmful to minority communities in Bangladesh, especially ethnic minorities.
Dr Senjuti Saha presented an easy-to-understand comparison. She hinted at how kids are taught at school all sorts of etiquette starting from table etiquette to general manners and how that is not at all prevalent online. There is no institutional teaching that is induced in individuals so they can understand.
She added, “People need to understand that it doesn’t matter whether you are behind a screen or sitting across the room from someone, “harassment is harassment, safety is safety, privacy is privacy.”
Syed Ishtiauque Ahmed, adding a rather tech-related insight, talked about two very important causes of said threats on the Internet. He explained that at the very core of the Internet and social media is the privatisation of hope, that is to say, large scale preaching of a user only aiming for individual improvement at all times. This proved that the fundamentals of the Internet are not aligned with community values. The second thing he mentioned was the unmoderated access that any social media user has to anyone else’s “visual diary” and how that gives them access to act in absurd ways and contributes to the problem.
While talking about solutions, Syed Istiaque Ahmed emphasised that more internet access doesn’t necessarily translate into less misinformation. In reality, we see quite the opposite happening. A country like Canada has really good internet coverage, but that has also given space for rapid amplification and the spread of misinformation.
“Those of us who work on content moderation know how hard it can be to distinguish between the good and bad in social media. You can create a smart algorithm that gets rid of all the false and made-up stuff from the internet but you will end up wiping off every poetry, fiction and myth. It just doesn’t work that way. While moderating, we also need to maintain democratic and pluralistic values. We need content moderators to understand and respect the diverse socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds people come from. The idea that truth is the best solution isn’t true either”.
Moderator Kazi agreed that fiction and myth is key part of the human experience.
“There is no silver bullet when it comes to solving digital safety issues. But if there is anything that comes close, that’s Education”, said Syed Istiaque Ahmed.
“We lack the proper educational infrastructure that can teach people about how to conduct themselves in a digital space. The anonymity that comes with digital interaction also facilitates hostile behaviour between two people who would otherwise never do that to each other in real life.”
Syed also stressed that our criminal justice institutions have still not adapted themselves to the digital world. “Digital crimes are very easy to document but people don’t know who to report to or how to get justice,” he added.
Panellist Muktasree pointed out that when it comes to content moderation for minorities, language is a key obstacle.
“Even if people report harassment and misinformation, the content in question still remains on the site because the algorithms of the tech companies are less efficient in detecting unsafe content in minority languages. Big Tech has to take responsibility for their failure to detect such contents and come up with better solutions.”
Panellist Senjuti Saha too emphasised the importance of education to tackle the issue of digital safety. She also mentioned that the government needs to step up and improve the enforcement of digital laws. Alongside government institutions, private and non-profit organisations like YPF also have a key role to play here.
She said, “We can’t deny anymore that Bangladesh is rapidly digitising. Women are empowering themselves by taking advantage of social networks and engaging in entrepreneurial activities. But many women still fear going live on Facebook because of what offensive comments they might receive. It becomes a mentally damaging experience for some of them. We have to find a way to better deal with these problems. Everyone has to be on the same page about this issue, otherwise, progress won’t happen.”
One common solution everyone offers when it comes to digital safety is to not use it at all.
Panellist Sakib Bin Rashid explains how this is a very primitive and naive idea. “We don’t have good content online in Bengali. What we need is to create so much good content that it outnumbers bad and harmful content.”
Syed Ishtiaque also weighed in by saying that we need to increase access among a large proportion of rural madrasa students who are prohibited by their teachers or parents to use the internet. Keeping people off the internet is no longer a viable solution. We need to use the digital space and learn to use it responsibly.
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