BTRC turns down govt proposal to block Facebook for six hours

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Monday turned down a government proposal to block social networking site Facebook for six hours after midnight.
The government put forth the proposal saying that it would contain excessive use of the social media by students and young people.
The telecom regulator gave its reply to the posts and telecommunication ministry on the day within hours of receiving the proposal, stating a number of steps to prevent abuse of Facebook by youths and students.
The BTRC reply said as there was no effective way to identify age of facebook users, it is technically impossible to block Facebook for youths and students.
The telecom regulator rather recommended use of different parental controlling tools and privacy and security features to contain abuse of facebook.
The regulator, however, said that it would be up to the government to take the final decision in this regard.
BTRC secretary and spokesperson Sarwar Alam told New Age on Monday that the commission already gave its opinion to the telecom ministry in this regard.
The BTRC on Monday received a letter from the post and telecommunication ministry regarding the government move.
The move came following proposals from the district administrators and divisional commissioners at the District Administrator Conference-2016 held in last year.
Following discussions, prime minister Sheikh Hasina instructed that the facebook could be blocked from 12:00am to 6:00am with a view to building a healthy and active nation.
A recent cabinet letter also asked relevant authorities to report the cabinet division on progress in implementing the directive.
Following the instruction, the posts and telecommunication ministry forwarded it to the BTRC for its opinion.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services president Mostafa Zabbar said that if such decision was implemented, he would launch demonstrations against it along with the young people as such move would bring no result.
Terming the government initiative funny, peculiar and illogical, online activist Arif Zebtik told New Age that the government’s logic behind the move was not acceptable at all.
‘Supervising children is the responsibility of parents, not of the state,’ he said. 

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