You may be inclined to think that since social media has allowed for faster global information transfer and experiencing new cultures but some governments have put up firewalls due to various reasons so that their citizens cannot access certain websites.
Bangladesh is the latest country to do that as reported by the Dhaka Tribune where they report that the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission directed to Block Skype, Twitter and Imo just after unblocking Facebook. Facebook was initially blocked on November 18th but was later unblocked by the authority on December 10th.
“The BTRC instructed us to block Skype, Imo and Twitter alongside Viber and other apps in our network with immediate effect until further instruction.” the chief strategic officer of Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network, Sumon Ahmed Sabir, was quoted by the publication. Apparently according to Sabir, the BTRC also requested “frequent monitoring of the blocked networks if they change their IP address, port addresses and application signatures.”
Skype, Twitter and Imo joins Whatsapp and Viber in the block list where previously the Bangladesh government cited security reasons for the ban. Apparently Whatsapp and Viber were banned way earlier in the year on January 18th.
According to a report by Freedom House, Bangladesh has been reported to be “partly free” where they have seen social media sites and political content blocked and bloggers arrested. In comparison, Kenya fared better since no social media sites have been blocked. In the case for Bangladesh, we may have to see if the authority will decide to reverse its decision to unblock these popular channels just like how they did it for Facebook.
