Social media censorship in Bangladesh: 19 day passed

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Wednesday (18th November, 2015) kept the social media closed following the request of country’s top security authorities. Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger will remain closed in Bangladesh for an indefinite period. Toda is the 9th Day but still there is no sign of reopening this ban. 

One of the most powerful art about Internet Censorship of this decade.

Youths of Bangladesh is really feeling bad about it. They are trying VPNs and Tor networks but still those do not have any access to this they are still in darkness. Internet censorship is not acceptable in a tech developing country like Bangladesh. 3000 Online Facebook based online shops are in darkness who do not have any websites.

A BTRC official made this assertion following the shutting down popular social media sites including Facebook, Whatsapp, Messenger and Viber for more than one hour. The internet service was also disconnected at that time. BTRC issued an order to keep the social media closed following the verdict of Supreme Court on the review appeals BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

Even lost our fiber optic cable connections for 10 mins to few hours, depending on different areas. Even till now internet connections are super slow. Bangladesh is one of the top 3 country as a freelancers outsourcing hub. In this meantime if it continues, we will lose our contracts in here also. It can be more than millions or billions.

According to the official, the top security authorities ordered to shut down social media sites resulting overall internet connection in the country disrupted. However, after a meeting with BTRC officials, the state minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim said that the internet service will remain uninterrupted but the social sites will remain closed for a certain period of time due to security reasons. But she did not mention any specific time for opening up the social media sites.