Sifat Abdullah, a student of Adamjee Cantonment College, thought he was venting his frustration.

On a Facebook Live video, Sifat took to complaining about unusually high electricity bills, deploying a language consisting of some choice words many consider to be offensive.

The next day, after his video went viral, he was picked up by police from his Gazipur home.

Why?

Golam Rabbani, officer-in-charge (OC) of Gacha police station, claimed: “He was trying to organise a flash procession with the fascist forces.”

It’s a shocking charge for simply using “vulgar” language, since that still appears to be the case.

But for the BNP, it also attaches a value to their words. Is it all just political talk for the sake of popularity?

Because actions certainly read louder than words.

Three months after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, BNP chairperson Tarique Rahman, who was yet to become the prime minister, made a commitment: ensuring freedom of expression.

Just a month earlier, he had earned praise for sharing a caricature of himself on social media.

At an event in November, he made his stance clearer.

Addressing an event virtually from his London home, he said, "If entrusted with the people's mandate to govern, the BNP will restore freedom of expression for all citizens, regardless of political or organisational affiliation.”

He also highlighted BNP’s role in upholding media freedom when the party was in power, vowing that if back in power Bangladesh’s media, too, would have the freedom to “speak truth to power” by critiquing the government openly through investigative reports, political shows and comedy and satire.

The messaging was important.

For over 15 years, Bangladeshis had been nearly cowered by self-censorship in the face of a trigger-happy AL regime which handed out defamation suits and charges related to the dreaded Digital Security Act without a second thought.

In September 2023, then Law Minister Anisul Huq said a total of 7,001 cases had been filed under the Digital Security Act, stemming from various perceived infractions.

A deeper look at the numbers revealed something more.

A 2024 research paper by the Centre for Governance Studies found that 60 percent of the Digital Security Act cases were filed by law enforcement agencies, the government, or pro-government political parties.

Broken down further it was seen that 190 cases were filed alleging that the accused had defamed then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Of these, 92 were lodged by AL activists, while law enforcers filed another 31.

A total of 80 cases were lodged for the alleged defamation of ministers, and the majority of them were filed by people who were not directly aggrieved, mostly ruling party affiliates.

By then time of her fall, Hasina had rolled out her own version of George Orwell’s Thought Police.

With her gone, the nation collected breathed a sigh of relief.

When the BNP government returned to power this February, freedom of expression was still treated like a right earned back through the bloody days of July and August.

And the BNP spoke in its favour. Loudly and often.

In an interview with Bangla-daily Prothom Alo in April, spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, Mahdi Amin, said, “You've seen how, with two-thirds of the mandate, elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is being slandered and vilified on social media by a particular group also targeting the interior minister along with others, spreading lies and acting improperly. Yet, no one’s freedom of speech has been stripped away.”

Yet even while Amin was giving that interview, many could indeed speak of their freedom being stripped.

In March and April this year, at least ten people were arrested over Facebook content under Section 54 of the Penal Code, a controversial law allowing police to arrest citizens using its discretion, the Anti-Terrorism Act, or the newly passed Cyber Protection Act (CPA) 2026.

The allegations ranged from “anti-government propaganda” to insults aimed at the prime minister, Rahman, and his family, to hurting religious sentiment, a Netra News report stated.

Two detainees were separately accused in contempt-of-court cases.

On March 31, Azizul Haque, a Jamaat party supporter, was arrested in Muktagachha,  after ruling party supporters complained about a controversial depiction of the prime minister that was shared on his Facebook page.

He was arrested under the Cyber ​​Security Ordinance and the Anti-Terrorism Act, with a magistrate upholding his detention on April 1.

The very next day, on April 2, members of the ruling party’s youth wing, Jubo Dal, abducted Shaon Mahmud and handed him over to the police in Sreenagar, near Dhaka, for allegedly “insulting” the prime minister on Facebook. Mahmud was then arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and the police said they are investigating multiple posts that could be “anti-state.”

On April 5, Sawoda Sumi, a supporter of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, was arrested under section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Bhola municipality, southern Bangladesh, for allegedly posting comments on Facebook that were deemed by police to be “anti-government.”

Then there’s a case that takes us back to the start of that November speech.

On April 17, Hasan Nasim, a digital marketing consulting, found members of the Detective Branch at his home, asking questions and searching devices without any warrant.

Nadim was then whisked away to the DB office where he was questioned a cartoon satirising the chief whip, Nurul Islam Moni, posted on a Facebook page called Pathorghata.com.

The officers even threatened to beat him, before one finally struck repeatedly with a stick.

The complainant in Nasim’s case was one Nazrul Islam.

“I filed the case as a native of Patharghata,” he told Netra News.

On April 22, officers from the same police station arrested Shakil Ahmed over a separate post.

The complaint says the post was an image of Zaima Rahman, the prime minister’s daughter, created using AI.

The post caption simply said, “Uncle Tarique printed everyone’s cards except our wedding invitation card,” with reference to a “family card”, “oil card” and “play card.”

The complainant was Mostafizur Rahman, a leader of a BNP volunteer wing.

Then three days later, police from Debiganj Police Station arrested Nishad Islam, a 12th-grade student, over a Facebook post carrying a video of the state minister for water resources addressing parliament.

While sharing the video, Nishad’s caption read: “This is what happens when you go to Parliament after smoking weed. And this pothead is our area’s MP.” 

The complaint against Nahid was filed by Mohammad Abdus Salam, a local ruling-party youth-wing leader.

“After Bangladeshis risked their lives to demand freedom and respect for human rights, the new government needs the political will to bring reform,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“It is deeply troubling that within months of taking office, the BNP government is arresting social media users for allegedly posting content it dislikes.”

In a statement in April, the Human Rights Watch also pointed to a seeming blind-spot for the government, which has been enabling such superfluous detentions.

“After years of abuses against freedom of expression, the interim government had sought to reform legislation with the 2025 Cyber Security Ordinance. It includes some improvements, including a provision that only the person allegedly injured by online content or their representative can lodge a complaint. That provision seems to have been violated in some of these cases.”

The HRW said this set a chilling precedent under the new BNP government.

So far, Home Minister Salahuddin has shrugged off empty promises.

Speaking at a parliamentary session at the end of April, he expressed concern over the rising tide of insults and personal attacks on social media.

While acknowledging freedom of expression, he noted it must be subject to reasonable restrictions to prevent the breakdown of social and religious harmony.

But who decides on such reasonable restrictions and on what basis remains to be seen.