DHAKA – A Bangladeshi minister yesterday said the country would temporarily suspend Facebook and YouTube services if they did not obey government instructions to control “disinformation”, Xinhua quoted a report from national news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
The country’s liberation war affairs minister who chairs the cabinet committee on law and order, Mozammel Haque, announced this to the media after a meeting of the committee.
Highlighting the decisions of the meeting, he said that the social media platforms were not sincere about the government’s recommendations on various issues.
As their head offices are not in Bangladesh, it has become difficult for the government to check rumours and control cybercrime on the platforms, he added.
The minister said the platforms would be informed about their non-compliance and then, if they did not comply, the government might resort to advertising in newspapers mentioning their non-compliance before taking any action.
He said the public notices would be served to the media giants so that they could not complain about their rights being curbed and thus, the government would not be held responsible. – April 1, 2024