On Wednesday morning, immediately after the Supreme Court rejected the review petitions of condemned war criminals BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, the government blocked popular social networking platform Facebook and online messaging and calling services WhatsApp and Viber.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sent a letter to all telecom operators and all Internet Service Providers to stop the services immediately.
“I am directed to instruct you to stop the Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp services in your network with immediate effect until further notice,” said the letter.
Previously, during a Parliament session, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that Bangladesh will ban the usage of free calling services like Viber and Whatsapp.
She said the criminals are misusing apps like WhatsApp and Viber to carry out criminal activities in the country.
“The government has planned to stop operation of these apps temporarily to arrest the criminals,” the PM said in reply to to a question of Awami League lawmaker Hazi Selim.
Earlier on January 18 of this year, the regulators blocked mobile applications Viber, WhatsApp, Tango, Mypeople and Line in the country for security reasons. The services were unblocked four days later.
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