Facebook available again in Bangladesh after two weeks

Bangladeshi users had employed alternative means to access the platform during the outage

After two weeks, Bangladeshi users once again have access to social media platform Facebook.

Representatives from social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok met with Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for post, telecommunications, and ICT on Wednesday before a decision was made to make them available once again.

The websites’ cache servers will be opened by Wednesday afternoon, said Palak.

This means that a variety of social media and messaging services, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and YouTube will be available in Bangladesh as before.

“We are withdrawing this afternoon the overall restrictions on social media activities that we temporarily imposed, in consideration of the overall situation,” he said.“We held a briefing and instructed the BTRC to open them. But it may take an hour or two. Hopefully, everything will be available by this afternoon.”

Representatives from Facebook met with Palak online, while TikTok representatives came in person. YouTube representatives sent a letter requesting a different date for a meeting.

The state minister had told reporters at the Secretariat that the decision on resuming service for social media platforms would be taken on Thursday.

“We wrote to TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, asking them to give explanations verbally and in writing. TikTok told us officially that they want to present their statements orally and in writing in person.”

The government had asked the social media platforms to stop ‘rumours and misinformation’ surrounding the quota reform movement. As the steps were not taken, Palak sought an explanation from the companies.

TWO-WEEK BLACKOUT

Mobile internet services were suspended on Jul 17 when clashes and violence spread across the country amid violence surrounding the quota protest movement.

After days of violence, broadband internet services were shut down on Jul 18. Facebook has been suspended in Bangladesh since that day.

Five days later, broadband service was resumed on Jul 23. Ten days later, on Jul 28, mobile internet was resumed.

Even after broadband and mobile service resumed, Facebook and TikTok were closed. Despite this, many people in the country were still using Facebook through alternative means.

State Minister Palak's Facebook was also active during the outage. He explained to the media that he was active on social media to correct misinformation and restrict rumours.

The government said on Jul 18 that the cables of various internet service providers and some data centres were damaged or affected when the Disaster Management Bhaban in Mohakhali was torched.

State Minister Palak commented that the attack led to the outage in internet service across the country.

The situation calmed gradually after a curfew was imposed across the country and the army was deployed.

Businessmen held a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Jul 22, calling for internet services to be restored speedily to revive business activity.