Facebook gets unblocked to users' cheers

General users and e-commerce site owners heaved a sigh of relief as the government yesterday unblocked Facebook.

After keeping it blocked for 22 days on “security grounds”, the country's telecom regulator opened the site at 2:00pm. Within six hours, data consumption jumped around 25 percent. 

“Users are now coming back to the popular platform. In every minute, bandwidth consumption is increasing,” said Suman Ahmed Sabir, chief strategy officer of Fibre@Home, an international internet gateway.

At noon yesterday, total data consumption of Fibre@Home was around 12-13 gigabit per second (gbps), which increased up to 16gbps at 8:00pm, he said.

Before Facebook was blocked, Fibre@Home's data consumption hovered around 17gbps a day, Sabir said.

Razib Ahmed, president of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, said they are more than happy, as the government at last unblocked the popular service.

It is not possible to build a “Digital Bangladesh” without the presence of digital commerce. Around 7,500 active Facebook pages, which do business through the social platform, have got their lifeline back with the unblocking of the site, he said.

Whatever the situation turns out to be, the government should stick to a decision of not imposing any kind of restriction on Facebook, added Razib.

On November 18, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber “for the sake of security” just an hour after the Supreme Court delivered verdicts upholding the death penalties of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

However, the regulator is yet to open online messaging and calling services -- WhatsApp, Viber, Line and Tango -- for security reasons, BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told The Daily Star.

“As per the recommendation of the home ministry, we have already given directives to all the telecom service providers to unblock Facebook immediately,” he said.

The government also had blocked Facebook during the BDR mutiny in 2009 and video-sharing website YouTube for 260 days between September 2012 and June 2013.

“The government needs to understand that Facebook has a very minor role to play in the world of digital crime,” said Mustafa Jabbar, former president of Bangladesh Computer Samity.

There are a lot of other ways to do digital crime and threatening people, said Jabbar, who is also an executive member of the Digital Taskforce, a supreme body for formation of digital policies of the government.

The authorities paid very little attention to those ways and went for blocking the social platforms, which are very helpful for business and education of the youth, he said.

Jabbar believes the government should concentrate on increasing the capabilities of the law-enforcing agencies.

He urged the government to increase awareness of the users and form modern laws that will help in controlling digital crimes.

Also yesterday, Tarana Halim, state minister for post and telecommunications, said the government opened Facebook as it is sure that there is no more risk attached with the site.

The government still feels that it is not safe to open WhatsApp and Viber now, she said at a press briefing at her officer. “The opening of the other networking tools may take more time.”

On November 30, Tarana wrote a letter to the Facebook authority to sign deals to get information of the users of the social networking site. On December 6, the government sat with the Facebook authority in Dhaka.

Tarana said there is no relation between the meeting and opening of Facebook.

All credit goes to Sajeeb Wazed Joy, prime minister's ICT adviser, who has taken the initiative to unblock Facebook understanding the needs of the youths, said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT.

The government took the step as it found that the e-commerce and outsourcing companies are facing difficulties due to the Facebook ban, added Palak.