Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, mobile internet ordered to be shut down

A government agency has ordered the shutdown of Meta platforms Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. The order was given to the International Internet Getaway (IIG) organisations after 1:00 pm today, Sunday.  

The platform Students against Discrimination has called an all-out non-cooperation movement from today with the one-point demand of the government’s resignation.

Incidents of clashes have occurred in different parts of the country including capital Dhaka centering this movement. Six people have been reported dead in the clashes with two in Munshiganj, two in Rangpur and two in Magura.  

Under such condition, the mobile operators were ordered to shut down 4G mobile internet around 12:00 pm today. If 4G internet is shut, mobile internet cannot be used. You can only talk over the phone through 2G. There are more than 120 million (12 crore) mobile internet users in the country.

After about an hour, the IIG organisations were given verbal order to shut down Meta’s cache server around 1:00 pm. However, the broadband internet is still active.

In response of the clashes and conflicts that erupted centering the quota reform movement, mobile internet was turned off on 17 July night and the broadband internet was closed down on 18 July. After five days broadband internet was restored on limited scale on 23 July. And, the mobile network reactivated after 10 days on 28 July.

However the Meta platforms including Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram were still closed. In addition to that, TikTok was kept closed as well. Meanwhile, YouTube was running on broadband connection but not on mobile data.

Social media including Facebook was reactivated in Bangladesh after 2:00 pm on 31 July. However the cache of the Meta platforms was turned off on mobile network after 12:15 pm on Friday, 2 August. Telegram was also shut down on this network that day. It was reactivated after five and a half hours though.