To prevent spreading of fake news and stop brutal crimes arising from baseless rumours, Bangladesh will start the usage of a social media content control system from September this year.
Reports quoted Bangladesh post and telecommunication minister Mustafa Jabbar as saying that the measure has been taken to assure safety of the citizens of the country and stop crimes on social media.
He also said the social media posts should not be in violation of the laws, culture, values and emotions of the people of a country.
Jabbar also added that every organization in the country will have a digital security force and all kind of social media posts will be monitored, so people cannot go on posting contents that are considered to be violent or harmful.
However, the steps of intervention on social media contents are not going down too well with some of the people of Bangladesh with some of them claiming that it will limit the freedom of expression of the people.
Apart from introduction of a social media content control system as a part of ‘Safe Internet’ campaign in Bangladesh, the government had shut down 22,000 pornography sites in February this year.
In February, Bangladesh government had also shut down a popular Bengali blogging site somewhereinblog.net, Bengali version of Google Books and social media apps such TikTok and Bigo as a part of crackdown on online pornography.
However, the move of blocking somewhereinblog.net created a furore among the bloggers registered in the site and most of them claimed that the site does not promote any form of pornographic content.
They also accused the government by saying that it only hampers the freedom of expression.