Professor Fahmidul Haq Warns Social Media Facilitates Mobilization but Hinders Sustainable Political Change
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Social media has lowered the barrier to organizing political movements globally, but it frequently fails to facilitate sustainable governance or long-term structural change, according to Professor Fahmidul Haq. Speaking at a seminar titled “From Digital Screen to Street: South Asia’s Gen-Z Uprising,” Haq noted that while digital platforms are highly effective at mobilizing youth through shared emotion and grievance, the durability of any resulting political shift remains tethered to broader socio-political realities.
The event, hosted by the Department of Media Studies and Journalism and the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) campus in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, brought together scholars and researchers to analyze the evolution of recent youth-led protests.
Haq, a faculty member at Bard College in the United States, identified a global wave of Gen-Z activism across at least 11 countries in 2025. From Madagascar and the Philippines to Nepal, Kenya, and the Maldives, these movements share striking commonalities: they are largely spontaneous, ideologically fluid, youth-led, and predominantly non-violent. These uprisings are primarily driven by systemic issues including widespread corruption, economic instability, and a lack of youth representation in governance.
The professor warned that viewing social media solely as a positive tool for political liberation ignores its capacity for manipulation and violence. He argued that the same infrastructure used to build consensus can be weaponized to mobilize crowds for institutional attacks. Citing the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Haq highlighted the transition from “consensus mobilization”—creating an emotional narrative—to “action mobilization,” where online sentiment is converted into physical, often destructive, activity.
In the context of recent events in Bangladesh, Haq pointed to the coordinated aggression against media institutions such as Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, as well as cultural organizations like Udichi and Chhayanaut. He noted that these incidents followed a period of intense online hostility and calls for violence, facilitated by algorithms that prioritize high-engagement, inflammatory content regardless of its societal impact.
Haq characterized the recent Bangladeshi movement not as a singular event from mid-July to early August, but as a broader process. He observed that student leaders utilized platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Telegram to foster emotional solidarity, later expanding their rhetoric to encompass institutional reform. During periods of internet shutdowns, protesters utilized VPNs and basic mobile phones to maintain operational continuity.
Comparing these tactics to Nepal’s youth movements, Haq noted that Nepalese protesters bypassed state-imposed social media blocks by coordinating via gaming platforms like Discord. While these digital tools enabled rapid mobilization against political elites, Haq cautioned that the reliance on such platforms can be a double-edged sword.
“Social media has made it easier to ignite a movement, but it has made sustaining change more difficult,” Haq concluded. He emphasized that building democratic institutions and achieving economic stability requires long-term, tangible political engagement. He further warned that if movements fail to yield stable outcomes, the resulting institutional vacuum can create fertile ground for the rise of right-wing political factions.
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