Opinion makers
Several blogs were popular among youths before the fast spread and dominance of Facebook. Although there was no mass participation, bloggers used to discuss and debate politics, economy, and other social issues. There were some personal blogs also. The discussions and debates were based on information and logics. Pioneer amongst them was Somewhereinblog, Bangladesh's first Bangla-language community blog site, founded in 2005. This trend continued until some bloggers, considered as seculars, began writing about Islam, Allah and Prophet Mohammad from the late 2010s. Some of the views were very extreme. To counter their views, a new group of bloggers emerged and began to term others "atheists and anti-religious". Basherkella is the prominent among those blogs.
The division between bloggers took a grave turn in 2013 over the issue of trying those who had committed crimes during Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971. Some bloggers and online activists played a leading role to mobilise a citizens' movement in 2013, demanding execution of the war criminals. On the other hand, the Islamist bloggers launched campaign against the movement and issued death threats against their opponents. The next two years saw the killings of five bloggers, forcing the government to shut down many blogs, including Somewherein and Basherkella. A number of bloggers were also arrested.
Some blogs like Mukto-mona (free-thinkers), Amarblog (my blog) are being operated from in and outside Bangladesh but lost the vigor. Activities on the blogs are confined and controlled because of the government's action and also due to the popularity of Facebook.