‘No More Silence’ unmasks alleged online harassers

No More Silence, a Facebook group, is exposing people accused of posting obscene, mocking, and derogatory comments targeting women and sharing evidence with their families, workplaces, and educational institutions in some cases, amid growing concern over online abuse.
The group says it has exposed more than 150 people accused of online harassment, publishing screenshots, profile links, photographs, and other publicly available information and sharing evidence with relevant institutions in several cases.
Founded on 2 November last year by writer and online activist Abir Ahmed Pias, the group has about 61,000 members.
Pias said the group seeks to promote accountability and challenge the assumption that harassers’ offensive comments will go unnoticed by people who know them.
He and two associates formed the group after an offensive comment on Facebook about reports of women being harassed at a concert at Jalal Stadium in Habiganj, held to mark Brindaban Government College’s silver jubilee, drew laughing reactions.
The group has two moderators: Umme Suraiya Sumi, an entrepreneur with a master’s degree in political science, and Zakia Hossain, a second-year higher secondary student.
Explaining the group’s activities, Sumi said members collect screenshots of abusive comments, review users’ Facebook profiles, and verify publicly available information before publishing their findings. “Many people use fake accounts, so we focus on genuine accounts,” she said.
The group said it exposed six people over offensive comments on a 30 September report about a woman found dead in a hotel toilet in Cox’s Bazar and identified five others for allegedly endorsing rape in comments on a 15 January report about a gang rape on a bus in Savar.
Some disclosures reportedly prompted institutional warnings.
In one case, a man’s Facebook post featuring photographs of his daughter during her early college days drew indecent comments. No More Silence published details of an alleged harasser, and the post spread widely. The group also sent screenshots of the comment to the person’s workplace and educational institution. It said the man later deactivated his Facebook account.
Supreme Court lawyer Ishrat Hasan said Section 509 of the Penal Code punishes insults to a woman’s modesty with up to one year in prison, a fine or both. Section 25 of the Cyber Security Act 2026 carries penalties of up to five years in prison, a fine of Tk20 lakh, or both for digital sexual harassment, blackmail, revenge pornography, and sextortion targeting women or children under 18.

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