Govt to help get back genuine Facebook accounts
Bangladesh government today said it will help genuine users get back their Facebook accounts which were purged in the drive against fake accounts.
Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder told The Daily Star the ministry had requested Facebook to block fake accounts.
“We are not sure if the current purging is a part of our request,” he said.
“If genuine users address the issue to the government, then we can take steps to unblock the accounts again,” said Sikder.
Echoing the secretary, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said they have responsibility to help the genuine account holders.
“We have regular contact with Facebook and we are hopeful that we can help genuine users,” he said. However he did not mention any specifics in this regard.
State Minister for Telecommunication Tarana Halim said her ministry had moved a list of accounts which were “definitely fake” and used under the name of VIPs.
Facebook started blocking accounts from Friday, saying “the accounts made up inauthentic likes and comments that appear to come from accounts located in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and a number of other countries”.
Nobody could mention the exact figure of blocked or disabled accounts from Bangladesh. However, unauthenticated sources said this number could be around one million.
There are 2.6 crore Facebook accounts operating from Bangladesh, according to a report of “Digital in 2017 Global Overview” run by We Are Social and Hootsuite.
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