Digital Bangladesh - A Facade

The Dream Of Digital Bangladesh - A Facade !!

It is rumored that the PM's son Shojib Wajed Joy was the think tank behind the Digital Bangladesh campaign, a slogan that gained immense popularity among the young educated urban population of Bangladesh. There is some evidence that the present regime did take the slogan seriously to begin with. In particular, most government establishments now have a website where basic information is available. Forms are available on line which in the olden days had to be obtained physically. Application for Passports can be made online. The police station websites provides a service for filing a general diary or complaint online ( although I am unaware that anybody does it in practice!) . In any case, these websites do not seem particularly well maintained. The information is not frequently updated and and the sites often succumb to hacking, mostly by joy riders who do it for the fun of it. Whatever the state of affairs, I do give credit to the present regime for coining the term 'Digital Bangladesh'. Another important development very closely related to information technology was the introduction of Right to Information Act. Clearly by the Act, the government expressed its intention to allow free flow of information. In fact the ability to obtain information in no longer a matter of privilege but rather a matter of right of the citizens.


Having said that, in its final year, the present AL regime is giving very confusing signals about its plans with 'Digital Bangladesh' and the free flow of information in the digital age. It seems they want it digital alright, but it shall be a controlled digital Bangladesh where citizens will have a right to information , but only that which is approved by the government. In other words any information that goes against this government cannot be distributed.


Restricted you tube access
12.03.2009 - It was a few days after the BDR mutiny. Some audio clips emerged in you tube containing a heated exchange of words between the PM and army officers. As a knee jerk reaction government closed down you tube for a few days. I any case the ban did not really matter , as most people found alternate ways to download the audio conversation. It was a hot cake and subject of very intense table talk back then. There was some criticism in the social media about this sudden knee jerk reaction to close down a vastly popular site like you tube on account of this tape. But I am willing to give this government the benefit of doubt. May be the conversation could have escalated the already intense situation and may be it was in the interest of national security not to allow the public to have access to that taped conversation. Sure, I will believe whatever you tell me! But in any case it was a knee jerk reaction and normalcy was restored within a few days. Digital Bangladesh was back on its course.


In October 2012, you tube made headlines once again. Apparently, some unknown good for nothing director/producer had published a 13 minute trailer of a move titled "innocent of Muslims' which allegedly depicts and vilifies our beloved prophet Muhammad (S.M.). Hours after Pakistan shut down you tube, our government followed the lead and and ordered a block on you tube. The official response of the government was that it requested Google to take down the video. However, since Google did not comply with the government's request , it had blocked you tube and will not restore access to the site until Google complies with our government's request. It is interesting to note at this point, that Muslim majority countries like Libya, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia had petitioned Google to take down/restricted access to the video clip for those regions and Google complied. The standard is simple: the petitioning country has to demonstrate that the video it wants blocked would: (a) contribute to serious public disorder and (b) would be unlawful under the laws of the petitioning country.I do not understand or have sufficient information on why a similar arrangement was not made in our case. Is it because our officers at BTRC are unqualified or incompetent to make such a petition ? I don't think so.


Whatever the reason, you tube remained officially blocked since 21.10.2012. However, for some peculiar reason , whether deliberate or not, you tube was accessible by most users via "Htttps" server and though mobile devices. Moreover, in case of some operators, the ban was not imposed and customers of those particular operators enjoyed hassle free access to you tube . Notwithstanding the apparent ban, you tube remained a prominent source of obtaining information about the misdeeds of government. The Skype conversations of the Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal, was made available in you tube. Recordings of interrogations of some AL leaders during the army backed government (1/11) surfaced on the site sometime in March 2013. Some of the videos showed AL leaders confessing their involvement in corruption of which our present PM is a beneficiary. Naturally, the videos were simultaneously published on Facebook as well, which happens to be the most predominant social media in Bangladesh at the moment. Not surprisingly, thereafter in April 2013, BTRC passed on a circular to all operators requiring them to shut down complete access to you tube. The operators complied. You tube became history in Bangladesh. To be honest it is still accessible via proxy, but the process is too cumbersome and unreliable and simply not worth the effort.

Curtailing the dissenting voices- 

With the media more or less sized up, Amader Desh, a leading anti government newspaper being shut down and its editor arrested on charges of sedition, the dissenting voice of Diganta TV taken offline by an illegal ambush on the night of 6th May 2013,   Facebook became the predominant voice of anti-government campaign. Videos of massacre that took place on the 6th of May in "operation flash out" soon started to emerge in face book pages dedicated to anti government campaign. My own mother and father, needless to say completely disconnected with the digital revolution, opened Facebook accounts and started following these anti government pages in their respective mobile devices! Often government shuts down some of these pages, basherkella being one of the most prominent sites, but to no avail. Somehow , a new page by the same name appears and soon it becomes populated with dedicated followers. Facebook is such a popular site in Bangladesh , that shutting it down is perhaps not an option for the Government at present . It will be too obvious. But nor can this act of insubordination be tolerated! What to do ? 

The solution came in the form of a circular by BTRC to all operators effective from 15th May 2013. It requires all operators to cut down the upload speed to 25% of the download speed. What that means in practice is that if with an average internet connection if it previously took 15 minutes to upload a 6 min clip, now with the reduced upload speed, it will take over an hour to do the same. Of course with obstruction from load shedding and unreliable internet connections (the general condition) it will become virtually impossible to upload videos in Facebook for the purposes of promoting anti government campaigns. Needless to say government has its official lame reason for this absurd decision. They want to block access to unauthorized VOIP. Now for those who are aware of the VOIP scam in Bangladesh, you will know that this excuse is sheer bollocks!! The collateral purpose here is to stop people for using Facebook as medium of information gathering. They want us to stick to the yellow media for getting news. News not vetted by the governed shall not be tolerated!


Moreover, I have heard from a reliable source that government's intelligence agency is planning to set up a division dedicated to identifying these insubordinate, unpatriotic individuals/pages/websites that dare to speak against the government. I have seen or read enough dystopian movies/books to form a vivid image of what is happening. History of the soviet regime should be enough to give us the shivers. When we have police inspectors listening to what we are saying you know that we are deeply buried inside a 'fascist' regime where values like 'freedom of thought, consciousnesses and speech ' have no meaning.

The sad state of affairs is that no body seems to give a shit! I went to speak to a prominent human rights activist about the matter. Being a lawyer I was thinking in terms of the law, perhaps filing a writ against BTRC for restraining our fundamental right of freedom of thought, consciousnesses and speech. But my senior friend gave me a nod and said "tell me in which court you want to file this suit ?". As a regular practitioner it was obvious to me what he meant. And that was the end of that.

So where are we heading? A controlled media, dissenting print and visual media being shut down. Social media for citizens to exchange views being referred to as 'terrorist' and 'unpatriotic'! Is this the digital Bangladesh our PM promised us ?