Mobile internet services in Bangladesh were restored on Sunday after being down for 12 days. However, access to social media and messaging apps reportedly remains blocked pending a meeting with social media reps and government officials later this week.
Bangladesh’s mobile internet went dark on July 17, followed by a complete internet blackout on July 18 after student protests against a new jobs quota system turned violent, with the death toll passing 200 as of Thursday.
Fixed broadband connectivity was fully restored on a “trial basis” on July 24, but State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said at the time that mobile internet wouldn’t be restored until at least Sunday or Monday.
According to the Business Standard, mobile internet came back online around 3pm on Sunday. However, according to the Daily Star, YouTube, TikTok and Meta services (Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp) have been blocked by order of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Palak has accused social media platforms, especially Facebook and YouTube, of not complying with Bangladesh's laws by allowing “rumours and fake news” to spread in violation of their own user policies, and allegedly ignoring the government’s takedown requests. Palak said in a media briefing Sunday that letters have been sent to social media companies, asking that they respond in person by July 31.
Palak also said on Sunday that customers of all operators will get a 5GB internet bonus, which will be valid for the next three days. However, one operator source speaking anonymously to the Daily Star said that subscribers were unlikely to use much of that data since a lot of mobile data usage in Bangladesh is driven by social media platforms, particularly videos.
Meanwhile, Palak doubled down on his earlier claim that the internet blackout was not ordered by the government, but the result of “planned sabotage” by protesters allegedly burning three data centres in the Dhaka neighbourhood of Mohakhali and destroying “hundreds of kilometres of cables”. He also claimed the three data centres “housed 18 IIG systems, which host 70% of the ISP servers, causing the internet disruption”.
However, an investigation last week by the Daily Star claimed the fire damage to the data centres was not extensive. The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association (BMPCA) told the newspaper even if the data centres had been completely destroyed, no more than 25% of internet users would have been affected, as major ISPs don’t keep servers there and connection redundancy is designed into the system.
The Business Standard report notes that there are also inconsistencies in the timeline of events that contradict the sabotage theory. Mobile internet services went offline the night of July 17 – the day before the data centre fires broke out. The fires themselves occurred on the afternoon of July 18, while the full blackout didn’t occur until 9pm.
Digital rights watchdog Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition noted earlier this month that Bangladesh has a history of throttling internet access and blocking social media and messaging apps, which has happened multiple times since 2018 – typically during protests and opposition rallies.
The BMPCA has urged the government to form an independent enquiry committee to confirm the cause of the blackout, the report said.
Of the over 131 million internet users in Bangladesh at the end of 2023, the vast majority – 118.49 million – are mobile internet users. Various media reports have said the telecoms and digital commerce sectors lost several million US dollars per day due to the mobile internet outage, while mobile financial services were also affected.
