Officials of popular social media networking site Facebook will meet Tarana Halim, state minister for post and telecommunications, today at her office at the Secretariat.
Facebook’s South Asian public policy manager and legal consultant for the region will sit with the junior minister in the morning.
The meeting with Facebook comes at a time when the social networking platform, which has nearly 1.8 billion users worldwide and 18 million in Bangladesh, is suspended here on security grounds.
It, however, has no relation with the temporary suspension of Facebook by the government on security issues.
In a letter to Facebook dated November 30, Tarana Halim expressed interest in signing a deal to ensure cyber security, especially in a bid to stopping violence against women.
The next day, Facebook gave consent to the discussion, as its Public Policy Director for India and South Asia Akhi Das replied to the state minister’s email agreeing to sit with the Bangladesh government.
On November 18, the government blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber, citing security reasons after the Supreme Court rejected review petitions by war criminals SQ Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.
After getting response from Facebook on December 1, Tarana said: “Hundreds of women are being victimised every day, which is alarming for our society and country. But we did not get any positive feedback from the authorities concerned.”
She said she repeatedly raised the issues, especially about violence against women through Facebook, in different platforms.
“This time they agreed to sit with Bangladesh.”
