Online Crackdown: Facebook, Twitter Remove Pages, Accounts Linked to Propagating ‘Anti-Government’ Sentiment

In the wake of Bangladesh elections around the corner, social media giants Facebook and Twitteron Thursday removed accounts and fake news pages linked to the government which, reportedly, had posted anti-government content.

With an estimated 30 million users, Facebook is the nation’s most popular social network. The company said it had removed nine fake news pages along with six other accounts. One of the six accounts had around 12,000 followers.

Reuters contacted the authorities but they were not available for comments.

“This kind of behaviour is not allowed on Facebook under our misrepresentation policy because we don’t want people or organisations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” Facebook’s Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement. The company was quoted as saying.

Similarly, Twitter had suspended 15 accounts that were identified as “engaging in coordinated platform manipulation.”

“Based on our initial analysis, it appears that some of these accounts may have ties to state-sponsored actors,” Twitter said. The company was quoted as saying.

Bangladesh’s spokesperson for elite security force Rapid Action Battalion, Mufti Mahmud Khan, did not comment on the statement issued by Facebook. The elite security force has been monitoring online content.

Mr. Khan said his team had arrested 30 people linked to spreading “anti-government propaganda”.

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, has been ruling the country past 10 years and is seeking to win a third term.