Today, the Entire Bangladesh is Hostage to the Crowds: Mob Trials, Digital Panic, and the Algorithmic Collapse of Rule of Law After 5 August 2024

On 5 August 2024, Bangladesh experienced a sharp inflection point: a convergence of political instability, digital misinformation, and spontaneous public violence that led to an epidemic of mob trials and extrajudicial killings. Since then, mobs—both digital and physical—have supplanted formal institutions of justice across urban neighborhoods, rural districts, and even educational campuses. This research investigates the anatomy, causes, and consequences of Bangladesh’s post-2024 mob justice phenomenon through a multidisciplinary lens—drawing from media studies, political science, psychology, and digital sociology.Using over 100 case studies, interviews with victims and survivors, media content analysis, and ethnographic observation of viral rumor networks, this study interrogates how social media platforms—especially Facebook, TikTok, and Telegram—act as algorithmic catalysts for communal and moral panic. These platforms' architecture rewards outrage, rumor, and sensationalism, creating echo chambers that incite collective punishment without due process. It documents how hashtags and clickbait content function as ‘digital warrants,’ mobilizing virtual crowds that quickly evolve into violent physical mobs. Moreover, this research maps the erosion of institutional responses—particularly the paralysis or complicity of law enforcement and judicial systems—which allows the mob to function as an alternate justice regime.The research also identifies key psychosocial and ideological dimensions of mob participants: including deindividuation, confirmation bias, perceived threat to religion or nationhood, and the romanticization of vigilante justice in popular discourse. Notably, the paper highlights the disproportionate targeting of religious minorities, political dissidents, and youth subcultures, thereby framing mob violence as not merely spontaneous but also as structurally reinforced by state neglect, political opportunism, and algorithmic design.Furthermore, the study traces a significant continuum: from online rumor to offline violence, from algorithmic visibility to targeted execution, and from digital humiliation to community terror. Particular attention is given to events like the Hazari Lane lynchings, Operation Devil Hunt, and the post-August 2024 Chittagong campus riots, offering critical insight into how digital panic translates into lethal real-world consequences. The article also presents an original model of the ‘Mob-Viral-Justice Loop,’ illustrating how platform design, socio-political stressors, and narrative propaganda feed into cycles of digital and physical vigilantism.Ultimately, the study argues that Bangladesh’s democratic order is under siege—not just from top-down authoritarian controls, but also from bottom-up algorithmically coordinated violence. The paper closes by proposing multi-level reforms, including: algorithmic transparency legislation, legal criminalization of mob incitement, civic education on digital literacy, and an independent truth commission on extrajudicial killings.In demonstrating how state power, corporate algorithms, and public rage intersect to normalize mass violence, this research extends the global scholarship on digital vigilantism, transitional authoritarianism, and platform governance. By centering Bangladesh, it also contributes a vital South Asian perspective to the urgent global debate on the future of rule of law in an era of algorithmic panic.