Facebook to sue ‘facebook.com.bd’ domain in Bangladesh

Facebook, the global social media giant, is preparing to file a lawsuit -- in a Bangladeshi court -- against a Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) owned domain called "facebook.com.bd".

Speaking to The Daily Star, Facebook-appointed Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Moksadul Islam said, "A Bangladeshi company, A1 Software Limited, had created a local domain called facebook.com.bd and put it up for sale for USD 6 million."

"We noticed this domain a few years back and have sent them multiple legal notices since then to shut the domain down, but it was not done," the lawyer continued.

"All '.bd' domains are owned by BTCL. I'm not sure what motivated BTCL to go ahead with this, knowing that Facebook's name cannot be legally used anywhere else," added Barrister Moksadul Islam.

Generally, ".bd" domains are owned by BTCL and to create a domain with ".bd", an organisation is required to prove its legal existence by putting forward documents that confirm it, such as utility bills.

Barrister Moksadul said, "We are working on filing the lawsuit immediately. We will ask for a ban on the operation of the website, as well as USD 50,000 in compensation."

When contacted, Dr Md Rafiqul Matin, managing director at BTCL, said "We are checking the documents but the domain was issued in 2008. We now maintain a digital log book but everything was paper-based back then."

"It was before my tenure, so it's going to take some time to find the details," he added.

"Back in 2008, Facebook was not that popular in Bangladesh. Probably that's the reason why this mishap might have happened," Dr Rafiqul opined.

Facebook's locally appointed agency could not provide a comment at the time of filing this report.