Govt blocks Facebook
Sunday, 30 May 2010
FE Report
The government blocked Saturday evening the social networking site Facebook for a brief period, a senior official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said.
The highly popular social network site was shut down at around 7:00pm following a request from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) headquarters to temporarily close the site, said the official, preferring anonymity.
The shutdown, however, continued until filing of the report at 10:00pm and the BTRC official would not give further details.
The shutdown came after RAB arrested a man in the Old Dhaka on charge of posting 'offensive' cartoons on government high-ups and making 'derogatory' comments about them on Facebook early Saturday.
A team of the RAB-10 detained Mahbub Alam Rodin (30) at Ranking Street in the Wari area of the capital early Saturday, the elite force said.
RAB officials said a group of Facebook-account-holders have been posting offensive cartoons, pictures and making indecent comments about government high-ups for several weeks.
On Friday, some Islamist groups also urged the government to ban the site for blasphemous comments.
The social networking site has over 500 million users across the world and has successfully attracted thousands of Internet-savvy in Bangladesh, mostly young and students.
The government blocked Saturday evening the social networking site Facebook for a brief period, a senior official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said.
The highly popular social network site was shut down at around 7:00pm following a request from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) headquarters to temporarily close the site, said the official, preferring anonymity.
The shutdown, however, continued until filing of the report at 10:00pm and the BTRC official would not give further details.
The shutdown came after RAB arrested a man in the Old Dhaka on charge of posting 'offensive' cartoons on government high-ups and making 'derogatory' comments about them on Facebook early Saturday.
A team of the RAB-10 detained Mahbub Alam Rodin (30) at Ranking Street in the Wari area of the capital early Saturday, the elite force said.
RAB officials said a group of Facebook-account-holders have been posting offensive cartoons, pictures and making indecent comments about government high-ups for several weeks.
On Friday, some Islamist groups also urged the government to ban the site for blasphemous comments.
The social networking site has over 500 million users across the world and has successfully attracted thousands of Internet-savvy in Bangladesh, mostly young and students.