The government should specifically say when it will lift the bar on Facebook, Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal has said.
He was speaking to journalists in the IPvision SUST 5th CSE Carnival 2015 at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) on Friday.“We will accept if the Facebook is closed temporarily. But we will have serious objection if it is not temporary,” he said.
“So, the government will have to say clearly when it will open Facebook,” he added.
The writer said the government should give a reason for the closure of the social media.
“Many jobs are done through Facebook. Many run their business. Teachers use it to teach students,” he said.
The SUST teacher said he thought closing the site indefinitely would cause great harm to the nation.
He said the government was supposed to close four apps.
“But I cannot even use Dropbox,” he said.
Before last Sunday’s execution of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, the government closed social networking site Facebook, its messenger app, Viber, WhatsApp and several other communication apps citing security reasons.
Mobile-phone and International Internet Gateway (IIG) operators have said data usage dropped in Bangladesh by 30 percent due to the closure.
State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim in an op-ed piece has defended the shutdown but not made it clear when the site and apps would be opened. – Agencies
