DUCSU: Facebook accounts of several candidates from JCD, Shibir backed panel disabled
Facebook accounts of several candidates of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election, including vice president (VP) and general secretary candidates from the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal-backed panel and VP candidate from the Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir-backed panel, have been disabled.
Facebook accounts of JCD backed VP candidate Abidul Islam Khan and GS candidate Sheikh Tanvir Bari Hamim and assistant general secretary candidate Tanvir Al Hadi could not be found on Monday afternoon.
Same was the case with Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir-backed VP candidate Shadik Kayem’s Facebook account.
Later at around 2:30 pm, browsing through social media showed that the Facebook ID of Chhatra Dal’s general secretary candidate Sheikh Tanvir Bari Hamim was active.
However, the IDs of vice president candidate Abidul Islam Khan and assistant general secretary candidate Tanvir Al Hadi could not be found.
Meanwhile, the Chhatra Shibir-backed panel said that the Facebook IDs of their VP candidate Abu Shadik Kayem, research and publication secretary candidate Sajjad Hossain Khan, and sports secretary candidate Arman Hossain had also been deactivated. Their IDs could not be found while browsing Facebook at around 2:30 pm.
The JCD backed panel held a press conference over the matter at Modhur Canteen on Dhaka University campus.
Addressing the press conference JCD backed VP candidate Abidul Islam Khan said, “I had warned you several times before that preparations were being made for various kinds of cyberattacks on the day before the election. Today, proof of that has emerged. When I woke up and was getting ready to go out, I saw that my ID had disappeared.”
Abidul Islam further said, “The first time I checked, my ID appeared blank (inactive). After trying for a while, I managed to recover it. Once recovered, I made a post on my Facebook profile to alert everyone. But 56 to 57 minutes after that post, my ID was deactivated again in the same way. Later, I appealed to the Facebook authorities with evidence. But I do not know whether I will get the ID back before the election.”
Earlier in the afternoon, in a WhatsApp message sent to media, Chhatra Dal’s general secretary Nasir Uddin said that the Facebook ID of JCD’s vice president candidate Abidul Islam Khan had been disabled once in the morning. It was later recovered, but has now been disabled again.
He said, “Students of Dhaka University, stay alert. If you stand by them, no conspiracy will be able to stop Abid and his panel.”
Shibir backed GS candidate raised the same complaints in a post on social media. He wrote, “Our panel’s candidates’ IDs are being subjected to continuous cyberattacks. Several candidates’ IDs have already been suspended. Quite a few IDs keep logging out repeatedly. May Allah help us.”
The DUCSU election will take place tomorrow, Tuesday. Voting will continue uninterrupted from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Yesterday, Sunday, was the last day for campaigning before the election.