But there was no directive to shut down the internet as a whole, says Tarana Halim, adding that the problem could have occurred when these apps were being shut down.
For the first time in Bangladesh, millions of users were shut out of the internet for about 90 minutes on Wednesday.
This came two hours after the Supreme Court scrapped the review petitions and upheld the death sentences of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.
The government move came in the wake of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s hint last week at clamping restrictions on the internet.
Users across the country were unable to access the World Wide Web between 1:15pm and 2:30pm.
But business returned to normal in the afternoon. However, some social media networking sites are still inaccessible and some mobile phone apps are not yet working.
This graph by Dyn Research site captures the internet blackout in Bangladesh for nearly 90 minutes on Wednesday. The time shown here is UTC, and six hours need to be added to it to get Bangladesh Standard Time.
After the recent killing of two foreign nationals and attacks on police checkposts, the prime minister on Nov 8 said the perpetrators were taking advantage of internet-based applications to communicate. They were thus evading detection by the security agencies.
The prime minister hinted then at closing down some mobile apps to cut off the militants’ communication and funding.