Facebook has so far removed 94 links related to derogatory and abusive remarks of ruling Awami League lawmaker Murad Hassan on women, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said on Thursday.
Murad Hassan, as per direction of the prime minister Sheikh Hsaina, had to resign as the state minister for information and broadcasting on December 7 after his abusive and derogatory remarks on women had gone viral on social media platforms.
An instruction of BTRC prompted the social media giant to remove the links, BTRC director general brigadier general Md Nasim Parvez disclosed the informed in a view exchanging meeting with the journalists on Thursday.
BTRC chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder presided over the meeting where BTRC vice-chairman Subrata Roy Maitra, commissioner Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, AKM Shahiduzzaman, among others, were present.
In the meeting, Nasim informed that the commission, following a court order, had so far asked Facebook to remove 268 links relating to the remarks of the former state minister.
The social media has already closed 94 links and the removal of other 174 links is on the process of facebook, he said.
Besides, the commission also identified 120 Youtube contents related to the issue, he said, adding that the Youtube had removed only two contents, Nasim said.
Shyam Sunder Sikder said that the commission was very much active in dealing with such issues and to take immediate measures in case of need, but the commission did not have the technology to close particular links of facebook directly.
He, however, said that the commission was looking for technologies to equip itself to overcome such issues.
Speaking about the commission’s move to tackle online financial activities of illegal entities, Nasim Parvez said that neither the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission nor the Department of Telecommunication had the capacity to stop operation of illegal online-based financial entities due to their mode of operation.
‘We have instructions from the government to close such illegal online financial activities and the central bank also confirmed us about the unlawful online activates,’ he said.
Asked about the poor mobile internet speed, BTRC director general Brigadier General Md Shahidul Alam said that the existing resources including spectrum are not adequate enough for ensuring satisfactory internet speed in 3G and 4G.
He, however, said that the service quality might be increased when the 5G service would be used by using different technology which was capable to deal with the existing barriers in improving service quality.
Speaking about the spectrum auction, Shahidul said that that the commission had initiated to hold spectrum auction in March, 2022.
He said that the country had a total of 565 MHz spectrum in three bands — 2300 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands.
Of the available spectrum, 65HMz in 2300MHz band, 100MHz in 2600MHz band and 400HMz in 3500MHz band are available for auction.
He also informed that the government was on the process of fixing price of the available spectrum.
