Three ministers have sat in a meeting with the officials of popular social media networking site Facebook.
The meeting began at the Home Ministry around 10:30am Sunday.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim and State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak are representing the Bangladesh government in the meeting.
Facebook Legal Consultant Vikram Langeh and Policy Manager Deepali Liberhan are representing Facebook.
Meanwhile, high officials from the law enforcement agencies and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) are also present in the meeting.
However, the meeting has no relation with the temporary suspension of the Facebook by the government on security issues.
The meeting with Facebook comes at a time when the social networking platform, which has nearly 1.8 billion users, is suspended in Bangladesh based on security grounds.
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.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to write letters to the authorities of search engine giant Google and video-sharing website YouTube about the country's cyber security issues after meeting Facebook officials.
