Tarana to meet FB officials in Singapore

State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim on Wednesday said she would to hold talks with Facebook officials in Singapore on next week as part of initiatives to reach a deal with the social networking site for an admin panel in Bangladesh.

"We are trying to reach a deal with Facebook to set an admin panel of the social networking site in Bangladesh . . . I want to achieve the two goals in long term," she told newsmen at her office at a briefing marking the completion of two years of her induction in the council of ministers.

Tarana said she planned to leave Dhaka on January 12 on a two-week visit which also would take her to Malaysia as she is set to meet her counterparts and Google and Microsoft officials in both the countries.

The state minister said her meeting with Facebook officials would review several issues and "I will also raise how many complaints related to social norms of the Bangladesh were filed to Facebook authority".

She said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has been made focal point to communicate with the Facebook.

On November 30 last year, Tarana wrote to Facebook citing examples of how the network was misused forcing several women in the country to commit suicide and how the miscreants uploaded objectionable contents often exposing girls of Bangladesh to extreme miseries.

Subsequently on December 6, Facebook South Asian Public Policy Manager Deepali Liberhan and law-enforcement specialist in South Asia Captain Vikram Langeh visited Bangladesh and held meetings with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Tarana Halim, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and security officials.

Tarana earlier urged the Facebook to ensure a policy to compel its users to honour Bangladesh`s law and tradition.

"Bangladesh is an independent country and everyone has to obey the law of the land . . . if faecbook implements its policy strictly in Bangladesh, violence against women and cyber crimes would come down significantly," she said.

Tarana said Facebook was well aware about their "big market" in Bangladesh and so the network had interests in the country.

Earlier on November 22, Bangladesh government imposed temporary restriction on Facebook and few messaging and calling apps on security ground.