Harnessing Facebook by Gen Z to Mobilize Masses and Transform Student Protest into Revolution: A Study on Quota Reform Movement 2024 in Bangladesh

Authors

  • Md. Dilwar Hushen Department of Political Studies, School of Social Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh

Keywords:

Quota reform movement, student protest, generation Z, revolution, facebook

Abstract

The Quota Reform Movement 2024 was initiated as a student-led protest highlighted on reforming the quota system in government jobs in Bangladesh. Initially it was confined to students only, the movement rapidly gained momentum through the strategic use of Facebook, where protesters (Gen Z) created pages and groups named "Baishammo Virudhi Chhatra Andolan" (Anti-Discrimination Student Protest) to organize protest, rallies, share movement activities and circulate videos, photos and news related to the protest. The movement reached a turning point when government-supported Chhatra League attacked on students particularly female participants and police opened fire on unarmed students resulting in six deaths in different universities on July 17, particularly Abu Sayed from Begum Rokeya University killed on July 16. These violent acts, documented and widely disseminated via social media, sparked public outrage. In response, the furious students initiated various protest strategies such as Bangla Blockades, Complete Shutdowns and Marches, alongside symbolic actions like changing Facebook profile pictures to red. Some revolutionary slogans, such as “Tumi ke? Ami ke? Razakar, Razakar” (“Who are you? Who am I? Traitor, Traitor”), further mobilized the masses. As the atrocities of the Sheikh Hasina government spread across social media through Facebook pages and groups, public sentiment grew stronger, transforming the students-led protest into a mass revolution which finally broke down Sheikh Hasina regime 2009-2024. The study is fully carried out through self funding and follows a descriptive methodology conducting on both primary and secondary data along with in-depth interviews. Finally, the study remarks that the future protests and movements will highly be influenced by modern technology.

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Published

2024-12-31