Legal notice seeks removal of fake news content from Facebook, YouTube
A Supreme Court lawyer on Sunday served a legal notice to multiple organisations, including the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman and Head of Public Policy (Bangladesh) of Facebook Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, for failing to remove contents from social and digital media platforms that encourage violence and public disorder.
The notice - on behalf of Bangladesh Supreme Court Advocate Nilufer Anjum and Dhaka Judge Court Advocate Md Ashraful Islam - called out the inaction and failure to regulate, monitor, and remove contents that infringe the sovereignty, integrity, image, public order and security of the state.
Barrister Arafat Hosen Khan sent the notice to Sabhanaz Rashid Diya as well as several government bodies including the Chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC); Director General, Digital Security Agency; Inspector General of Police (IGP), Bangladesh Police Police Headquarters, etc.
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"Due to the lack of regulation by the BTRC and DSA, absence of foresight and deliberate ignorance from Facebook and YouTube, various frivolous, fictitious and fake news is being widely circulated," the legal notice states adding that such posts have violated Sections 30, 64, 76, 97A of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, 2001, Sections 8, 13, 16, 25 of the Digital Security Act, 2018 and Section 46 of the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006 (as amended in 2013).
In the legal notice, the lawyer said Facebook and YouTube do not apply any supervisory mechanism or have control over their contents, especially in Bangladesh, while a large number of fake news, contents, images, and videos containing obscene and damaging presentations of political figures, intellectuals tarnish the image of the country as a nation.
It also mentioned that these posts disclose various sensitive issues relating to international policies and broadcast misleading and twisted information through various Facebook users and YouTube subscribers inside and outside Bangladesh.
Barrister Arafat Hosen further said in the notice, "A vested quarter - both inside and outside Bangladesh - are purportedly circulating propaganda that highlights Bangladesh as a failed state in front of the international community and to stir turmoil inside the country.
It also noted that the same quarters are manipulating the global economic phenomenon, caused by the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, to create an abnormal situation, public disorder, civil disobedience, threat to national security and above all spoil Government's image.
