The country's quota system requires a third of government jobs to be reserved for relatives of veterans who fought for independence from Pakistan. This has led to widespread unemployment.

This is also coupled with high inflation and shrinking foreign exchange reserves. All this has weakened the urge to protest and for the government to stop it.

Bangladeshi authorities shut down internet and phone access throughout the country. They claim that it is all to stop the spread of rumours and misinformation and exercise state control.

NetBlocks, a global internet monitor that works on digital rights, analysed live network data that showed Bangladesh was experiencing a "near-total national internet shutdown."

The country has done this before to crack down on political opposition and activists. At the end of 2023, the research tool CIVICUS Monitor, which provides data on the state of civil society and freedoms in nearly 200 countries, downgraded Bangladesh's civic space to "closed," its lowest possible rating, after the country imposed six internet shutdowns the previous year. Access Now said That Bangladesh was the fifth-largest perpetrator of internet shutdowns in 2022.

The country's telecom regulator had pledged to keep internet access on through Bangladesh's general elections at the beginning of 2024, but that electoral period is now over. Despite the pledge, Bangladesh blocked access to news websites during its elections.