Facebook ban temporary

Social networking site Facebook, blocked by the government, is expected to be back on in a couple of days, officials said yesterday.
The site could be unblocked by Tuesday once offensive contents are taken off the site, said high-ups of the country's two IIG (international internet gateway) service providers.
Regulators blocked access to Facebook after satiric images of political leaders were posted on the site. Part of the reason was the uploading of anti-Islamic content about Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM).
The government move came after its technical experts failed to remove the offensive contents from the site.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Saturday asked the IIG service providers to block the website.
"BTRC engineers tried in vain to block access to the links to the pictures. The website [Facebook] had to be blocked," said Post and Telecommunications Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose.
BTRC with the help of IIG service providers tried to block the contents by using DPI (deep packet inspection) in data handlers -- a method similar to applying a filter to the server to block unwanted contents. But it did not work.
An official of Mango Telecom, one of the two IIG service providers, said the links were "technically smart" and reappeared on Facebook despite repeated attempts to block them.
The two IIG service providers tried to contact US-based Cisco, which provides them with services and equipment, to find a solution. But they did not receive any feedback from Cisco.
The BTRC in a letter to the Facebook authority on Saturday evening requested it to remove the links from the site.
"I am instructed to contact Facebook, Inc. management on behalf of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to resolve some groups issue which seems to be offending the citizens of Bangladesh," said the letter signed by a BTRC official.
"The groups have posted defamatory contents, mostly pictures of our National and Spiritual leaders. We have already initiated a process to block the entire site [facebook.com], since blocking of the partial links for the groups have not been a success here in Bangladesh," the letter said.
Many Facebookers expressed disappointment at the government decision, terming it undemocratic.
They said the decision came from a government that assumed power with a dream of having "Digital Bangladesh" by 2021.
If any offensive material is posted on the site, an option is there to get it removed by the Facebook authority, they said. The offensive contents could have been taken off the site instead of blocking it.
Human rights and student organisations expressed resentment and concern over the ban on the site. They called the move "a violation to the right to freedom of speech" and urged the government to lift the ban immediately.
Students of Dhaka University also brought out a procession protesting the government decision.
Aktaruzzaman Manju, president of Bangladesh Internet Service Providers, termed the decision awkward.
There are so many ways to block unpleasant sites, he added.
A person was arrested on charges of "spreading malice and insulting the country's leaders" by uploading the images.
Bangladesh is the second South Asian nation to block Facebook after Pakistan that invoked a similar ban on the site for offensive contents.
Post and Telecommunications Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose said the website had been used to taint people's character and national values.
Some newspapers even published those pictures and gave links for the readers to see them on the web, Sunil said. "This is a disgrace to the nation."