'Red' profiles flood Facebook

In a coordinated effort by protesting students to ‘online campaign with pictures depicting faces covered with red cloth,’ Facebook has been inundated with red profile photos.

Till of 10:00am on Tuesday (July 30), numerous Bangladeshi profiles, groups, and pages on Facebook have adopted red-themed imagery.

In addition to changing profile pictures to red, many users have posted individual and group photos with red cloth tied around their eyes and faces.

Abdul Hannan Masood, a coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, explained the symbolism behind the red cloth: "The government made a mockery of the martyrs by declaring a day of mourning in memory of the victims while carrying out mass killings across the country and labeling the students' movement as 'violence.' In protest, we boycotted their black badge program. They still have blood on their hands. So our program is an online campaign by tying red cloth over our faces and eyes."