Tackling militancy: Government to hold talks with Facebook again

Bangladesh government is going to hold talks with Facebook representatives this month on how to tackle malicious content that are spreading radical views and instigating terrorism, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has said.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 7 March 2017, 01:35 PM
Updated : 7 March 2017, 01:35 PM

"They (Facebook authorities) are responding to our concern within 48 hours and shutting down any page encouraging militancy," she said at the inaugural ceremony of an international workshop at Dhaka's Le Meridien Hotel on Tuesday.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury inaugurated the two-day workshop titled "Digital Bangladesh: Cyber Crime, Safe Internet and Broadband".

Tarana said: "Many use fake IDs and create those pages to propagate militancy. Therefore, it's hard to identify or reach them."

The government will hold talks to solve these problems, she said.

In 2015, the government blocked popular social networking site Facebook and other networking apps for 22 days to “destroy communications system” of terrorists.

The move came following a series of murders and terror attacks.

The state minister issued a letter to the Facebook authorities that year highlighting ‘misuse’ of Facebook in Bangladesh.

In December 2015, three ministers of the ruling party held a meeting with a Facebook delegation at the home ministry.

They visited Facebook Asia-Pacific zone's head office in Singapore in January last year.

During a parliamentary session in June last year, Tarana said the Facebook authorities, Microsoft and Google had agreed to solve any complaint on untoward materials within 48 hours.

"The social networking sites have their own set of rules, but that should not contradict the state law of a country," Tarana said on Tuesday.

"Our social networking policies are formed and implemented in coherence with our cultural values. We are a liberal nation...some issues are sensitive," she continued.  

The social networking policy should be set in line with the social, religious and cultural practices of a country. 

There should be monitoring cells in every country to oversee these matters, she suggested.

The workshop will hold nine sessions covering a broad range of topics related to cyber-crimes and prevention procedures.