COVID-19 exposes digital divide, social stigma, and information crisis in Bangladesh

08, November 2020 | Bangladesh

Authors:

Abstract

The advent of COVID-19 has exposed digital and social inequalities across the world. The United Nations (UN) and other global bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have warned that the COVID-19 pan- demic will lead to rising global inequalities and the risk of a global economic recession (van Barneveld et al., 2020). It is predicted that an additional 8% of the world’s population will fall into poverty (Sumner et al., 2020). While we think of a “con- nected world” and access to information, half of the world’s population, especially low-income coun- tries still do not have access to the Internet (Watts, 2020). The nature and impact of digital divide and social inequality might not be the same in the extent of knowledge and usage from Global South to North. In this context, the instance of Bangladesh with regard to the COVID-19 crisis provides distinctive clues to sociocultural aspects of digital culture and communication practices and related policy debates.