Staff Reporter :
‘Facebook’, the most vibrant social communication media which was blocked by the government on November 18 for security measures, has been unblocked after a gap of 22 days.
The government lifted bar on use of the Facebook across the country on Thursday. The curbs on WhatsApp and Viber, however, remains. The Facebook became accessible to the users from Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the noon, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim in a press briefing said that the government decided to unlock the social networking platform Facebook. “We are unlocking the Facebook for the sake of people,”she said. She, however, said that other social networking sites would remain blocked for security reasons.
Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Dr Shahjahan Mahmood said they took the decision as per direction from the concerned ministry.In Bangladesh, over 15 million people are active on the Facebook and the number of users is rising.
The previous ban on the Facebook occurred in 2010, along with YouTube, which was banned after a group of people uploaded photos hurting religious sentiments of Muslims in the country. The government blocked the Facebook also during the BDR mutiny in 2009.
The virtual world’s activists, who faced inconvenience following the blocking of ‘Facebook’ and other social media sites, have been demanding unlocking of the social sites from the day of blocking.
