Bangladeshi Facebook users flood newsfeeds with red

Facebook, the most popular social media site in Bangladesh, has been flooded with the colour red as a huge number of Bangladeshi users have changed their profile pictures to a solid field of red, protesting the deaths during the recent quota reform movement.

The trend took hold following the announcement of a new programme by some coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. They called on people to cover their faces with red pieces of cloth and upload their photos online as a rejection of the government's call for nationwide mourning today for those killed in the recent violence.

The coordinators made the call in a press release signed by Mahin Sarker, a coordinator of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement.

Since then, a large number of people from all walks of life began changing their profile pictures on Facebook.

Others, however, especially those who are affiliated with ruling party politics, have changed their profile pictures to a solid field of black to express solidarity with the government's call for nationwide mourning.

Many of those who have changed their profile pictures to red have attached captions with hashtags and poems.