According to bdnews24, Facebook has been temporarily banned by the Bangladesh government.
Here is the story:
Dhaka, May 29 (bdnews24.com) — Facebook has been blocked in Bangladesh for a brief period, a senior BTRC official told bdnews24.com Saturday evening after hundreds of users reported the social networking site was down.
The official, speaking on condition anonymity, admitted that elite crime busters RAB requested temporary closure of the site in the country.
"Yes, it's been blocked for a while," the official told bdnews24.com at 8:50pm.
The official would not give further details.
Hundreds of users reported that the social networking site was down after attempting to log on from 7pm.
BTRC's chief technical officer Biplob Chakma confirmed bdnews24.com at around 9.30pm that the site was indeed blocked based on a 'memo'.
He also said that he may be able to provide with further details about the shutdown on Sunday morning after reporting for duty.
However, Biplob declined to reveal the identity of the authority which issued the letter.
RAB arrested a youth from the capital early Saturday for publishing caricatures of prime minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia.
RAB also alleged that the youth was responsible of a number of cyber crimes using a number of fake identities.
A number of religion-based political organisations demanded closure of the site on Friday.
The parties that made this demand in a meeting at Muktangan include the Islami Andolan, Islami Oikkyajot and Khilafat Andolan.
Meanwhile, the leading Bangla blog Somewhereinblog is now flooded with condemnation for this 'ghastly' act of the government. Many bloggers are offering proxy sites to bypass the ban for accessing facebook.
