The sudden ban on the use of popular social media platforms and the public reaction are easily the key focus of the information and communication sector in 2015.
On November 18, the government blocked popular social media website Facebook and instant messaging applications Viber and Whatsapp on security grounds.
That came three days before high profile war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were hanged, although one of the government’s junior ministers said there was no connection between the executions and the ban.
On November 11, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in parliament that the government had been considering blocking Viber and WhatsApp temporarily to track down cybercriminals.
During the 22-day social media blackout, three members of the cabinet met with Facebook officials to discuss cybersecurity, highlighting violence against women as one of the biggest concerns behind the ban.
But the Facebook officials rejected a Bangladesh government request to set up an equipment for filtering content on the social media platform.
In the past, governments in Syria, China, Iran, South Africa, Egypt and Russia have also imposed similar temporary bans on the use of the world’s most popular social media platform – Facebook.
The ban in Bangladesh drew a strong wave of criticism from general public and also the business world.
While public said it was a violation of democratic and other rights, businesspeople said they suffered massive losses during the blackout which could be up to Tk2 crore everyday.
Many people resorted to alternative proxy arrangements and virtual private network (VPN) technologies in order to continue using Facebook during the ban.
ICT expert Mostofa Jabber said blocking social networking sites was not a solution for curbing criminality.
“The government will have to combat criminals with modern equipment, not by blocking Facebook.
“During emergencies, the government may temporarily suspend social networking sites. But continuing with the ban day after day was totally useless. Facebook has major use for education, e-commerce and f-commerce platforms,” Mostafa said, referring to the growing electronic commerce and Facebook commerce sectors.
The six mobile telcom operators in Bangladesh claimed that they lost Tk1.5 crore each day during the social media shutdown as revenue earnings from data services plummeted by 30%.
According to the country’s telecom regulator BTRC, the total number of mobile internet users dropped 863,000 in November from 52.3 million in October.
On December 13, three days after lifting the ban on Facebook, Viber and Whatsapp, the government blocked three other similar platforms Twitter, Skype and Imo for three days.
It is still not very clear why those three platforms had been blocked after just three days of lifting another ban.