Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulation Commission Blocks Gambling

Monday saw the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulation Commission (BTRC) block some 15,000 pornographic websites and more than 2200 gambling websites. Bigo and Tik Tok, two video sharing smartphone apps were also shut down.

176 gambling sites had been shut down according to an announcement made last Thursday. 1279 pornographic websites had been blocked within the country by then. The number skyrocketed over the weekend.

Mustafa Jabbar, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology wrote in a Facebook post that the move was intended to craft a safe space on the Internet without the presence of any “indecent content”. He said that Internet usage should be able to benefit young people. Gambling and pornographic websites defeat this purpose.

The ministry has shut down 4500 adult websites since February 7. 2235 gambling sites were made inaccessible in Bangladesh and 176 more were asked to be made defunct by ministry directive on Sunday.

The two apps which have been ordered to be blocked though have come under censure for political reasons. Two users on Tik Tok mocked the outcome of the national elections held on December 30, last year. It seems to be a calculated move to clampdown dissent.

Voting at the elections had been allegedly rigged and the whole process was marked by violent outbreaks. Leader of the opposition, Kamal Hossain, had demanded for a re-election to be organized after suffering a loss. Apps such as Tik Tok have been used by his followers to voice dissent against the election results.

It isn’t the first time

It isn’t unprecedented for BTRC to go into such blocking drives. 47 websites were unceremoniously blocked three weeks before the elections and another 54 were banned within a day’s time. Priyo.com and dhakatimes.com made up the list of the 101 websites blocked in total.

58 of these websites were eventually unblocked and came back online after a handful of days. Most of these sites that were formerly blocked were news websites which begs to question the recent move on banning pornographic and gambling websites.

The International Internet Gateway holds the reign over internet usage in Bangladesh. It can exercise its discretion to block any website that it/the BTRC finds unfit for public consumption. Many of the sites that were blocked before were restored in December. However, it cannot be ascertained if the gambling websites will meet the same fate. Chances are, they probably won’t.