Facebook suspends whistleblower Saiyed Abdullah's account

The Facebook authorities, citing a violation of the social media platform’s community standards, have suspended the account of Saiyed Abdullah, a law department graduate of Dhaka University who gained attention for highlighting the much-hyped goat saga..

Saiyed Abdullah exposed Mushfiqur Rahman when he ordered a sacrificial goat worth Tk 1.5 million before Eid-ul-Azha, and his relation with Matiur Rahman, a now-removed member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR). Abdullah made multiple posts on his social media handle in this regard. 

Matiur Rahman publicly denied any relation to Mushfiqur, but Abdullah's investigation, what he terms as citizen journalism, and subsequent media reports confirmed that Mushfiqur was indeed the son of Matiur and his second wife. Later, a staggering amount of financial holdings and wealth of Matiur and his family came to light through media reports. 

Against the backdrop, the government removed Matiur Rahman from his NBR position on Sunday and from the board of directors of Sonali Bank on Monday. Besides, a court has banned Matiur, his wife Laila Kaniz, and his son Ahmad Taufiqur Rahman from traveling abroad.

Saiyed Abdullah, who identifies himself as an activist, told Prothom Alo that his account was initially shut down for two hours on 19 June, following a post about the relationship between Mushfiqur and Matiur. He was notified that there were unidentified attempts to log in to his account, and the account was restored sometime later.  

He, however, found the account suspended in the morning on 22 June. Facebook did not provide any specific reasons for the suspension, but notified that his actions did not align with their policies.

Regarding the suspension, Facebook mentioned three potential violations – creating an account impersonating someone else, using someone else's image to commit fraud, and creating a page that speaks for others. But it did not specify any of the reasons that it applied to the case of Saiyed Abdullah. 

Against this backdrop, the activist suspects that there might be multiple reports against his account. 

“There are allegations against Facebook of stifling voices on virtual platforms. They do not encourage citizen journalism, and are failing to safeguard those who speak against the corrupt. Instead, they have suspended accounts without citing any specific reasons,” he said, fearing that it would encourage the corrupt.  

The mother company of Facebook, Meta, was contacted via its public relation agency in Bangladesh on Sunday, but it refused to make any comments regarding the issue.  

There have been growing allegations against Facebook over diminishing the reach of political and media reports, activists’ posts, and engaging in 'shadow banning'. Democratic processes in various countries are allegedly being influenced and disrupted through undeclared and unaccountable shadow banning. 

Saimum Reza Talukder, senior lecturer of the school of law at BRAC University, said a large number of contents are frequently removed and accounts are suspended due to violation of business and editorial policies of social media platforms. 

However, controversies have arisen recently over some particular platforms as they mistakenly or wrongly removed some contents related to social, economic and political issues, while allowing various harmful contents, including online betting, misinformation, hate speech, and  erotic advertisements. 

In a report in April this year, a local rights defender, Digitally Right Limited (DRL) noted that despite a ban on betting in Bangladesh, numerous betting advertisements were published on Facebook, targeting the Bangladeshi netizens. Meta is making a huge profit out of these advertisements.