Talks with Facebook representatives were fruitful: Home Minister Kamal

Without spelling out when the Bangladesh government would unblock social media sites, Home Minister Asaduzzaaman Khan Kamal said on Sunday that the meeting with Facebook representatives was fruitful.

All that Kamal promised was that “a decision on the issue would be taken very soon.”

Kamal along with two other ministers held discussions with two Facebook representatives— South Asia Law Enforcement Specialist Vikram Langeh and Public Policy Manager Deepali Liberhan on Sunday.

“We have made it clear earlier that access has been blocked on security grounds. We had a fruitful discussion with them,” Kamal told reporters after the meeting at his ministry.

State Minister for Telecoms Tarana Halim and State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak joined the two-hour discussions with top law enforcement officials— IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque, RAB Additional Director General Ziaul Ahsan and Special Branch Additional IG Javed Patwary.

The talks follow the government's move on Nov 18 to block access to Facebook, its messenger app and some other communication apps on grounds of national security.

However, many users in Bangladesh have been using proxy servers to access Facebook and the other apps.

Asked for details on the discussion, Kamal said, “We have informed them that Facebook has been abused; used for propaganda. We have discussed whether Facebook will be filtered.”

Kamal said the media will be informed on the details of the discussion ‘soon’.

Only two days ago, State Minister for Telecoms Tarana Halim said that the social networking site had responded to the government’s offer for discussions on some adverse effects of Facebook use in Bangladesh.

She said that the government would impress upon the social media giant the need for it to respond rapidly to any complaint.

Halim has also discussed the possibility of trying to strike a deal with Facebook to prevent posting of ‘objectionable’ contents.