ID for New Account: FB refuses to sign MoU with police
Facebook has turned down a proposal to sign a memorandum of understanding on requiring national identity card or passport numbers/copies for Bangladeshis to open accounts on the social media website, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday said.
As the policy of the social networking site doesn't allow it to sign any MoU with any country, its authority suggested that one official from Bangladesh Police be designated to maintain direct communication with Facebook and said it would provide assistance whenever needed.
Contacted, a renowned IT expert, Sumon Ahmed Sabir told The Daily Star the police's demand, if met by Facebook, would put Bangladesh in negative light.
“I doubt if any other country had ever done this. We were negatively portrayed when we blocked Facebook and some other social media sites in 2015.”
Sumon also pointed out Facebook's privacy agreement with its users, which cannot be breached.
The police chief spoke of the proposal and Facebook's response when he was briefing reporters after the closing of a three-day international conference organised by Interpol and Bangladesh Police at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital. Vikram Langeh, Facebook's manager of trust and safety, participated in the conference.
“We said [to Langeh] there must be some restrictions for opening a Facebook account. A person's ID card or passport should be there to identify him,” the IGP said.
Police also expressed concerns to Langeh over propaganda by militants on Facebook.
“They spread militancy there… They influence our youths. They spread rumors, incite communalism. Also our religious sentiments are hurt sometimes.”
In response, the Facebook representative said his organisation had hardly ever received complaints related to religious issues from other countries.
“Nevertheless, they [Facebook authorities] asked us to appoint a focal point to have direct communication [with them]….They will assist police in whatever we want in our people's interests,” IGP Shahidul said.
Assistant Inspector General of Police (confidential) Moniruzzaman has been appointed to communicate with Facebook.
“Our demands included immediate removal of any content raising a law and order issue and blocking defaming contents that create communal and religious tension,” he said.
The police officer also said the response of the Facebook official was “positive”.
“It is a business organisation. It wants to expand and reach more people and it has its own policies.”
However, the Facebook representative told Bangladesh Police that he would bring up the issues in meetings with his top-level executives since he was not in a position to make decisions on such matters, Moniruzzaman said.
Reached for comments, noted security analyst Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain said, “Requiring passport or NID for a Facebook account doesn't go with the vision of Digital Bangladesh.
Besides, communications among militants and radicalisation of people don't take place on Facebook only. Security hazards, especially ones involving the flow of information, are there in every country.
“Misuse of technologies are present everywhere. Are they restricting the flow of information?”
Another security expert Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan said it was unlikely that an international business would make an exception for Bangladesh only.
Earlier in 2014, the parliamentary standing committee on posts and telecommunications ministry recommended that the government should find out a way to ensure that national ID card number or passport number is given to open a Facebook account, said an official of the parliament.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak at an event in November 2015 reportedly said the government was planning to write to Facebook on the matter.