4 Bangladeshis send legal notice to Mark Zuckerberg to prevent misuse of Facebook
Four Bangladeshi citizens sent a legal notice today to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook among others, requesting him to take necessary steps in three days to prevent the abuse and misuse of Facebook, which is allegedly disrupting communal harmony in Bangladesh.
Lawyer Tapas Kanti Baul served the notice on behalf of the four citizens via an email to five respondents, saying that they (the notice senders) are alarmed due to spread of fake and distorted news and contents, misinformation, disinformation and mal-information (text, image, audio, video, etc) on socio-religious, state and political issues, causing riots and chaos among various groups of people including religious communities of Bangladesh.
The signatories are Saleem Samad, a senior journalist, Dr SM Masum Billah, a teacher of law department at Jagannath University (JnU), Advocate George Chowdhury, a Supreme Court lawyer and Victor Ray, a leader of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.
The four respondents are chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), secretary at the ministry of posts, telecommunication and information technology, senior secretary at the public security division of home ministry, and director general of the digital security agency and Mark Zuckerberg have been asked to comply with the notice.
In the notice, the four Bangladeshi nationals urged the respondents to take necessary steps to regulate Facebook's activities in Bangladesh without any delay, failing which, they will take appropriate legal action against the company.
The notice said: "A Facebook post on October 13 claimed that Hindus insulted the Holy Quran by placing it in a Durga Puja Pavilion. Reportedly, videos and photos of the Holy Quran kept in a Durga Puja Pavilion at Cumilla were circulated widely on social media mostly on the Facebook.
"These types of misinformation and disinformation became viral all over the Facebook and resulted into creation and posting of hate speech and other contents, which you the notice recipients have failed to stop or to control".
As a result of such misinformation and disinformation and hate speech, communal attacks have taken place in 27 districts against Hindu establishments in Bangladesh from October 13 to November 1, they said in the notice.
During that time, 117 temples and pavilions were vandalised, 301 businesses and houses were attacked and looted and few were burnt, and nine people were killed, they added.
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