Dhaka:

Bangladesh's government party's IT cell and online research institute, CRI, have become reckless ahead of the national elections. In many ways, they are protecting the government and blocking the free flow of information online. Starting from using bots in this work, they are also cloning the accounts of various social media.

The government agency BTRC has been harassing those who regularly provide free information on Facebook and Twitter (now X) in various ways for a long time. They regularly emailed the authorities of various social media sites, requesting the removal of the posts. Apart from this, Awami IT Cell and CRI continued to spread misinformation against journalists and activists who were regularly providing correct information.

But for the past few days, they have gone one step further. A few days ago, they were accused of opening a fake Twitter account in the name of Peter Haas, the US ambassador to Bangladesh. However, the embassy only issued a statement about the opening of the fake account.

However, this time Muktadir Rashid Romeo, a journalist of Bangladeshi English daily NewAge, has become a victim of such an incident. A Twitter 'troll account' was opened using his name and information. Apart from journalism, Romeo has been trying to provide free information through social media for the past few years. Due to this he was regularly harassed online by Awami IT cells. His name was also given various posts with different political parties at different times. Still, Romeo was doing his job. As a result, this 'troll ID' was created to make this journalist controversial.

Bangladesh Media Monitor spoke to Muktadir Rashid about the fact. He was asked whether he thinks that such work is a strategy to suppress his voice? In response, he said, this is not an attempt to suppress my voice. They know they can't. They indulged in the tactlessness of controverting me through such acts.