Bangladesh

Overview

Six percent of Bangladeshis use the Internet, most through mobile phones. The government is pursuing “Digital Bangladesh,” a plan to use ICT development to help lift the country out of poverty by 2021. Internet speeds remain extremely slow, and damage to the country’s only submarine cable connection in June 2012 temporarily reduced Internet access. Despite its embrace of ICT development, the government significantly regulates online activity, including content that is defamatory, that may threaten law and order, or that is religiously sensitive. Those who publish such information online face prison time or high fines. Three atheist bloggers were arrested and one murdered for anti-Islamist writings in 2013. The government also occasionally blocks sites and in 2013 announced a plan to filter content at Internet gateways.

Access

Six percent of Bangladeshis use the Internet, though very few (0.34 percent) have fixed broadband connections. Far more Bangladeshis (64 percent) have mobile phones, and as early as 2009, 90 percent of Internet users logged on via mobile networks. Internet speeds in the country remain extremely low. Despite low levels of access and slow speeds, the country is pursuing a “Digital Bangladesh” plan that embraces ICT development as a key way for the country to lift itself out of poverty by 2021. Funding for some programs included in the plan, however, has been delayed.

Control

In May 2013, the Bangladeshi government announced a plan to install filters at the country’s Internet gateways. The Daily Star newspaper reported that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) wants to use filters to protect people from harmful content, which includes information that threatens “national unity and solidarity,” presents “obscene, indecent, and morally inappropriate” material, or offends religious beliefs. Article 57 of the Information and Communication Technologies Act gives the government authority to regulate Internet content; those who post “defamatory content, content that may harm law and order, and content that attacks religious beliefs” face up to ten years in prison or a 10 million taka ($128,000) fine. The government has also blocked websites in the past for displaying similar content. In March 2009, the government blocked YouTube for hosting a video of a dispute between the prime minister and the army. Facebook was blocked in May 2010 over the “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” campaign. In 2012, the country’s parliament passed an anti-pornography bill that imposes a maximum five-year prison sentence and a 200,000 taka ($2,600) fine on those who distribute pornography through websites or mobile phones.

Activity

A variety of projects in Bangladesh underscore how the country has embraced ICT development as an advancement tool, but debates have flared for years on social media regarding what religious content should be available online. To boost Internet access in rural areas, a community project trains “Info Ladies” and sends them with a laptop and a bicycle to villages. Villagers, mostly women, pay for time on the computer to Skype, use social media, or access government services. Digital sensors and mobile phones have helped create an early-warning system for storms that threaten fisherman, a content-management system for a poverty-reduction program that accepts data entry from mobile phones, and a mobile cash transfer system. Organizations such as Bytes for All and the Dhaka chapter of the Internet Society also work toward ICT development. Internet content remains a contentious issue in Bangladesh. The government arrested three atheist bloggers in April 2013, ordered hundreds of blog posts be removed from the Web, and blocked over a dozen blogs and websites. A similar crackdown occurred in February 2013 after anti-Islamist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was murdered in Dhaka.