Legal notice served on govt to unblock Facebook

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday sent a legal notice to the government requesting it to allow access to Facebook and the use of WhatsApp and Viber within 24 hours.

Advocate Cumar Debul Dey served the notice to the post and telecommunication secretary saying the secretary would face legal consequences if the social networking sites, which were blocked on November 18, are not unblocked within 24 hours.

He said such an "arbitrary" decision to block such social communication websites and mobile applications violates people's constitutional and legal rights.         

Moreover, the decision is an obstacle of building a "Digital Bangladesh", which is an election pledge of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he added in the notice.        

Mobile data usage dropped over 22 percent after the government blocked Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp on November 18, according to telecom networks.