Govt waits for content removal

The government submitted an appeal to the Facebook authority using its automatic 'abuse reporting' tool to remove the offensive contents from its site.
After a discussion with 26 information technology (IT) experts, BTRC officials yesterday signed in the social networking site for a while and submitted the appeal.
If any user submits a request using the option in the Facebook tool bar, it gives reply within 24 hours from submitting the appeal.
Facebook users use 'abuse reporting' option massively when they found anything offensive in the social network site. All reports on abuse in the site are considered confidential.
After getting an appeal against a particular content, the Facebook authority investigates the issue and makes a determination whether the content would remain on the site following its terms of use.
In certain situations, the circumstances require more severe action. For instance, users, who repeatedly violate Facebook terms of use, can be banned permanently from the site.
“We sent another request to Facebook authority today Monday after discussing with the IT experts. We hope the authority will reply soon as it's a automatic reporting system,” said a high official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
BTRC officials and international internet gateway service providers said they did not get scope of using the 'abuse reporting' option as government high ups gave order to block the site.
IT experts said the government is expected to get feedback from the Facebook authority within next 24 hours.
Earlier, BTRC sent a letter to the authority on Saturday evening via email and requested it to remove the offensive links from the site.
As the telecom regulator did not get any response till yesterday, all IT experts and the BTRC officials unanimously decided to make an abuse reporting to Facebook.
Meeting sources said some offensive pictures were already removed from the site.
However, the government is not yet confirmed whether the contents are removed permanently.
The government blocked access to Facebook on Saturday 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).
26 IT experts from mobile companies, internet service providers, Wimax operators, gateways operators attended the meeting at BTRC office in the capital to find a way out to resume the Facebook access.
“We have examined all options to resume Facebook access. We hope after BTRC's move today Monday all offensive items from the site will be removed soon,” said Mir Masud Kabir, managing director of Mango Telecom Services.