BTRC bans free Facebook use

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has banned the use of free social media for internet packages.

BTRC sent a letter to internet providers on Tuesday on the pretext of creating unhealthy competition in the market. Which is effective from Wednesday.

The letter, signed by BTRC Deputy Director Sabina Islam in response to a letter from the Information Ministry, said it was recently noticed that telecom service providers were creating unhealthy competition in the market to provide social media-related services partially or in some cases completely free to attract their customers. By taking these free social media related services, some dishonest people have been conducting various kinds of unnecessary criminal activities on social media.

The most widely used social media sites in Bangladesh, such as Facebook, Emo, WhatsApp, Twitter, the operators offer free or low-cost use of the package. After this instruction of BTRC, they no longer have that opportunity.