Digital Silence and Liberating Stories
Nova Ahmed, Zareen Tasnim, Jasmine Jones · 2019
In August 2018, a student protest initiated in Bangladesh sought justice when two school students were run over by public bus. Student protesters were demonstrating on the street for days until they were physically attacked. Concurrent with the physical attacks, the country experienced a disconnect. Internet, restrictions on social media usage, and several high-profile arrests of people speaking about the incidents. These suppressive encounters created what we call a "digital silence." In response, we collected stories from people, which depict their effort to seek out information about the events unfolding and share their perspective of what happened. Through these in-the-moment stories, we see a glimpse of how the information suppression impacted people with varying proximity to the events, including protesters, bystanders, and family members. We also reflect on the benefit of the subtle defiance of storytelling for storytellers in the midst of this social justice effort.