In the graveyard known as the Bangladeshi internet space, complaining about mooching may seem a bit clichéd, as everyone is out to garner a few more likes at any cost.

However, even in this kind of a sickly, perverted environment, some outlets produce their own content as they invest in dedicated contributors, who write genuine stories and hunt down interviews.

The problems arise when secondary looney toons-esque pages directly use that content as their own or give credit in the smallest font possible, with the website links intentionally broken down to not generate any traffic on behalf of the real source.

Recently, we, the ever-capable content generators, are experiencing an uptick of this “legalised” stealing. Since they’ve mentioned some hint of a source somewhere, they feel like using the same interview (shortened down by CHATGPT) and the same picture is justified and does not constitute plagiarism. Some don’t even choose to provide credit; they simply translate the content into Bangla and use it as their own desk report.

Their sickly high interest in partaking in this thievery gets justified when corporate houses happily provide sponsorships in their social media cards, since they’ve conquered the basic “achievement” any news outlet should showcase first: followers on Meta.

So, why are they like this? Where has our conscience gone? And is there any way of expecting some resemblance of professionalism from the so-called kilograms, boozos, mongos and channel Xs?

If you ask my opinion about it, NO, we won’t see any change. Social media guidelines or “journalistic” ethics have long existed, but the choice to follow them has never been a deliberate one.

Why? Because following them would mean larger investments, effort and a basic sense of integrity that aims beyond just gathering likes and shares. Do our aforementioned loony tunes characters have any of these? You be the judge.

So what do I do in this instance? Well, Meta’s copyright strikes are useful, as are the comments on those posts. One does not expect corporate houses to sponsor objective, authentic sources because figuring out who is whom isn’t their job.

I do, however, expect awareness from the contributors and our followers. Followers who should realise that this outright goonery is being empowered by their “follow” button.

And to the contributors, don’t let this demotivate us. Basic ethics has always been absent from the media landscape, and it is a reflection of the wider aspects of society that require far more restructuring than just copyright strikes. You should, however, change your tone, be more aggressive, be cognisant of the atrocities being committed, and be aware of such actions not being undertaken by you or your media houses.

It is up to you, the uncluttered young minds, to remain firm against corrupt media practices and to call out plagiarism outright. There will be no space given to the weak and incompetent.