In Bangladesh most complain over Facebook

[Sayeed Rahman]

Source:http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=537162&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24

In Bangladesh, most complain over Facebook
Publish Date: Saturday,13 October, 2012, at 11:41 PM Doha Time

By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission’s anti-cyber
crime cell has received, in the last nine months, over a thousand
complaints, most of which were directed at the popular social
networking site Facebook and were lodged by female students, official
said yesterday.
Bangladesh Computer Security Incident Response Team (BD-CSIRT), which
has been working since January, has also received complaints including
uploading of objectionable videos on YouTube, e-mail threats and
websites being hacked.
“We inform the Facebook authorities after we get a complaint. The
objectionable contents are then removed from the Facebook pages,”
Gaisuddin Ahmed, regulatory body’s acting chief, said.
“Various complaints are also being lodged against posts on YouTube and
other video sharing sites. The sites are urged to remove the posts
after complaints are received. Or else we block those sites,” one of
the cell’s cybercrime specialist said.
YouTube is currently blocked in Bangladesh after its mother company,
Google, refused to remove a video, which sparked worldwide protests
from Muslims for derogatorily representing Prophet Muhammad.
The cell has been working against contents on various websites that
spreads national, social, political and religious hatred.
One of cybercrime specialists said that most of the complaints were
being lodged about fake Facebook profiles.
Many have complained that their identities are being used to harass
them by opening fake accounts in their name or using their pictures.
To address such allegations, the CSIRT takes two steps. First it
identifies the complainant, if they have Facebook ID, through a copy
of photo-IDs sent over mail and then informs the Facebook authorities,
who removes the fake accounts within two-three weeks. In case, the
complainant does not have Facebook ID, then they have to file a
general ID with their local police and send a copy to the cell. The
cell then informs the Facebook authority, the BTRC specialist added.
He added that most of the complainants were girls studying in schools
and colleges and that most of it was about fake profiles and
objectionable pictures.
According to checkfacebook.com, the number of Facebook users in
Bangladesh stands around 1.6mn.