Bangladesh, a country of 174 million residents, has had its internet restricted. The country is currently rocked by student protests demanding changes to controversial quota system that gives advantages in job placements to family members of freedom fighters. State authorities have responded violently to the protests. Thirty-two people, mostly young students, have lost their lives and the number of deaths is likely to increase. Thursday saw the highest death toll in a single day so far.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh has gone down the frequently charted path of a digital blackout. State authorities shut down the cellular network and internet service across the country. Netblocks, the internet’s observatory organisation confirmed restrictions on Meta owned Facebook. A day later, the organisation confirmed restrictions are affecting the messaging platform WhatsApp.
Bangladesh has 77.36 million internet users with an internet penetration rate of 44.5 percent. In the country, Facebook has 52.90 million users while WhatsApp has 44 million active users. This means more than half of internet users in the country use the two meta owned platforms for communication.
READ: Internet Outage Reported in Kenya as X Goes Down
Such internet restrictions are clearly a tool used by governments to censor public conversations and limit freedom of speech and association. Since 2015, the country has had seven internet restrictions, all related to political unrest. According to cybersecurity company Surf shark’s Internet Shutdown Tracker, this is Bangladesh’s first restriction since 2021. The 2021 shutdown was due to protests over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh. It implemented two internet limitations in 2018 amid its parliamentary elections, impacting social media platforms and mobile internet services.
Globally, majority of internet restrictions are recorded in Asia. Bangladesh was seemingly changing its ways but has gone back to a behaviour prevalent in the region. Its neighbour India experiences one the highest number of restrictions annually.
This political tool was also in use a month a go in Kenya as the government shutdown the internet. There have also been reports that the Kenyan government is colluding with meta and X to restrict hashtags and influencer accounts.
