A Bangladeshi university lecturer has been sentenced to six months in
jail after he made comments in a Facebook post about Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina.
Sheikh Hasina. (Mark Lennihan - AP) Ruhul Khandakar was found guilty in absentia of contempt of court after he did not return from Australia, where he is studying, in response to a court summons.
Court officials say Khandakar’s comments implied he wanted the prime minister to die, BBC reports.
Government officials and police officers in recent years have wised up to the goings-on of Facebook, and with that has come an increasing number of arrests for what people post on the social network.
Khandakar’s post came on the heels of the death of one of the country’s most popular film makers, Tareq Masud, in a shocking road accident in August. “Tareq Masud died as a result of government giving licence to unqualified drivers. Many die, why does not Sheikh Hasina die,” Khandakar’s post reportedly read.
There are 2.25 million Facebook users in Bangladesh, according to SocialBakers.com.
In addition to talking about a prime minister’s death, here are seven other Facebook postings that have landed people in hot water:
1. Posting a photo of a corpse.
December 2010: Former New York EMT Mark Musarella pleaded guilty to charges of misconduct and disorderly conduct for posting a picture of a strangled woman to Facebook after he responded to an emergency call in Staten Island, the AP reports. Musarella avoided jail but lost his EMT license, according to Staten Island Live.
2. Posting your plans to rob a bank.
April 2011: Houston police tracked down and arrested four suspects in a bank robbery case after finding Facebook posts by bank tellers that read: “Get $$$” and “WIPE MY TEETH WITH HUNDEREDS [sic],” the Houston Chronicle reports,
3. Ranking the appearances of high school girls.
May 2011: An Illinois teenager was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly posting a list ranking the physical appearance of 50 girls at his high school. The list “described the girls by explicit, derogatory nicknames and assessed their physical appearance, sexual desirability, sexual activity and other characteristics,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports..
4. Posting a woman’s naked photos.
July 2011:Joseph Bernard Campbell pleaded guilty to charges of cyberstalking and unauthorized access to a computer after he broke into the e-mail accounts of 19 woman, stole risqué photographs of them, and made those photos their Facebook profile picture, the Flordia Statesman reports.
5. Encouraging riots, even if you are kidding.
August 2011: During the London riots, two British men in their early 20s were jailed for four years for posting Facebook messages encouraging people to vandalize a shop, the BBC reports. The men said it had only been a “joke.”
6. Mocking the dead.
September 2011: Twenty-five-year-old British man Sean Duffy was arrested for targeting tribute pages on Facebook, where he posted videos and messages that mocked the deaths of teenagers and their families, the Telegraph reports. Duffy pleaded guilty to two counts of sending malicious communications and was sentenced to 18 weeks for each of the offenses, to run concurrently. He was also given a five year Anti-Social Behaviour Order, and forbidden from accessing social media Web sites in the future.
7. Threatening an attack.
January 2012: New Jersey police charged a 14-year-old girl with posting threats of an attack on Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, and asking for help in doing so, NJ.com reports.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/bangladeshi-jailed-for-facebook-post-on-prime-minister-and-7-other-posts-that-got-people-arrested/2012/01/04/gIQAe3akaP_blog.html?wprss=blogpost
Sheikh Hasina. (Mark Lennihan - AP) Ruhul Khandakar was found guilty in absentia of contempt of court after he did not return from Australia, where he is studying, in response to a court summons.
Court officials say Khandakar’s comments implied he wanted the prime minister to die, BBC reports.
Government officials and police officers in recent years have wised up to the goings-on of Facebook, and with that has come an increasing number of arrests for what people post on the social network.
Khandakar’s post came on the heels of the death of one of the country’s most popular film makers, Tareq Masud, in a shocking road accident in August. “Tareq Masud died as a result of government giving licence to unqualified drivers. Many die, why does not Sheikh Hasina die,” Khandakar’s post reportedly read.
There are 2.25 million Facebook users in Bangladesh, according to SocialBakers.com.
In addition to talking about a prime minister’s death, here are seven other Facebook postings that have landed people in hot water:
1. Posting a photo of a corpse.
December 2010: Former New York EMT Mark Musarella pleaded guilty to charges of misconduct and disorderly conduct for posting a picture of a strangled woman to Facebook after he responded to an emergency call in Staten Island, the AP reports. Musarella avoided jail but lost his EMT license, according to Staten Island Live.
2. Posting your plans to rob a bank.
April 2011: Houston police tracked down and arrested four suspects in a bank robbery case after finding Facebook posts by bank tellers that read: “Get $$$” and “WIPE MY TEETH WITH HUNDEREDS [sic],” the Houston Chronicle reports,
3. Ranking the appearances of high school girls.
May 2011: An Illinois teenager was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly posting a list ranking the physical appearance of 50 girls at his high school. The list “described the girls by explicit, derogatory nicknames and assessed their physical appearance, sexual desirability, sexual activity and other characteristics,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports..
4. Posting a woman’s naked photos.
July 2011:Joseph Bernard Campbell pleaded guilty to charges of cyberstalking and unauthorized access to a computer after he broke into the e-mail accounts of 19 woman, stole risqué photographs of them, and made those photos their Facebook profile picture, the Flordia Statesman reports.
5. Encouraging riots, even if you are kidding.
August 2011: During the London riots, two British men in their early 20s were jailed for four years for posting Facebook messages encouraging people to vandalize a shop, the BBC reports. The men said it had only been a “joke.”
6. Mocking the dead.
September 2011: Twenty-five-year-old British man Sean Duffy was arrested for targeting tribute pages on Facebook, where he posted videos and messages that mocked the deaths of teenagers and their families, the Telegraph reports. Duffy pleaded guilty to two counts of sending malicious communications and was sentenced to 18 weeks for each of the offenses, to run concurrently. He was also given a five year Anti-Social Behaviour Order, and forbidden from accessing social media Web sites in the future.
7. Threatening an attack.
January 2012: New Jersey police charged a 14-year-old girl with posting threats of an attack on Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, and asking for help in doing so, NJ.com reports.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/bangladeshi-jailed-for-facebook-post-on-prime-minister-and-7-other-posts-that-got-people-arrested/2012/01/04/gIQAe3akaP_blog.html?wprss=blogpost
