From Promise to Perils: Social Media as Contested Political Infrastructure in Bangladesh
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65826/IJPCR.1.3.2026.61Keywords:
Social Media Paradox, Digital Politics, Bangladesh Politics, Political Communication, Digital DemocracyAbstract
This article analyses the opportunities and challenges of social media in Bangladeshi politics. It reframes digital platforms as contested political infrastructure rather than a simple battleground between democratic promise and political peril. This framework shows that both trends happen simultaneously and are accomplished with the same platform mechanics. The analysis examines four political episodes: the Shahbagh Movement (2013), Road Safety Movement (2018), Quota Reform Movement (2018), and July uprising (2024) and aftermath. The analysis thematically analysed journal articles, institutional reports, and public documentary sources and compared across cases. The role of digital platforms shifted from expression and coordination to documentation, international visibility, contestation of narratives and legitimacy, and post-event collective memory. The opportunity to connect, observe, move, know, and feel creates an even greater reach of participation but speeds up the spread of misinformation, misrepresentation, disproportionate amplification, hostility, and division. Institutional trust, verification capacity, and political competition and governance arrangements impact these effects. The article takes the paradox of social media to the democratic sphere and contends that digital governance ought not only to ensure that civic communication is protected but also be transparent, proportional, verifiable, and institutional accountable.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Arefin Rahman Alif, Md. Hasan Al Azad, Sadia Sharmin Chhanda
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