Bangladeshi women in UK falling victim to online trolls, some left feeling ‘suicidal’

In a growing trend of online harassment, Bangladeshi women living in the UK have been facing threats and abuse from online trolls.

Trolls have chosen TikTok to be their preferred medium as Bangladeshi women often use the platform to speak out about their issues. Despite efforts to seek help from authorities and social media platforms, many feel abandoned and helpless.

Sultana (not her real name), a resident of Yorkshire, who often spoke out about misogyny and toxic relationships on TikTok, became a target of relentless abuse after defending a friend against a troll named Hasan Sayed, the BBC reports.

She was at work when some of her followers on TikTok messaged her and asked if she had seen the videos that he had posted about her.

"People were commenting on the post and laughing at me," she said.

The abuse carried on sporadically for two years and she said it was something "you never get over".

"I have always struggled with my mental health and I have had intense therapy to get over this but it triggered my PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," Sultana said.

"I felt that all of the hard work I had done to get better went down the drain."

The troll, Hasan Syed, operates from Paris, stealing personal information and using it to harass victims, often making violent threats.

He torments and terrorises people by stealing personal photographs and information from their social media feed and puts them on a "green screen" in videos.

Masuma, based in Wales, faced similar torment when she refused to invite Syed as a guest on her live session. Despite reporting him to TikTok, the ordeal left her business affected and her mental health deteriorated.

Kamrul Islam, after encountering Syed's videos, faced threats against his family, including his pregnant wife. 

"He started making videos about me, he got some pictures of my son [from when he was a year old], my mum and my wife from my Instagram account and openly threatened to rape them," he said.

Islam's wife, Rukthan, was seven months pregnant at the time with their second child and he told her everything and decided to call the police.

"It was very stressful for me. I was crying my eyes out and I felt scared because many of [Syed's] followers live in the UK," his wife said.

Despite reporting this to authorities, including the French justice system, progress has been slow due to bureaucratic hurdles and potential biases.

He  also got in touch with TikTok to demand they take down the videos.

He said he was shocked to be told they found "no violation" of their community guidelines.

Undeterred, Islam contacted the British Embassy in Paris in February 2023 to ask for their help and they put him in touch with an English-speaking French solicitor, Mathieu Croizet.

Croizet filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor's Office alleging Syed had committed three serious offences under French law - repeated threats of violence and rape against an adult and child, child pornography and cyber-bullying.

However Islam said he has had no real updates on how the case is going and his solicitor, Croizet, said it could take a long time to reach a conclusion.

"The French justice system is understaffed and has a limited budget," he added.

"Protecting minors is something the French justice system has promised to do but in France it is almost impossible to get abusive posts online taken down, even if they are making violent threats."

He also told the BBC that "there is a lot of Islamophobia in France and Kamrul's surname being Islam could be blocking the case"

In April 2023 he eventually contacted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who investigated and compelled social media platforms to remove the content. However, it took external intervention for them to act.

Many victims, like Sultana and Islam, feel frustrated by the lack of support from social media platforms and authorities. Despite recent legislation like the UKs Online Safety Bill, which aims to hold platforms accountable for illegal content, its effectiveness remains to be seen.

The Bangladeshi community, particularly women, faces a trend of online harassment and abuse that authorities and platforms must urgently address. Without decisive action, the toll on victims' lives will continue to escalate.