A delegation of tech giant Meta met the Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Engineer Md. Mohiuddin Ahmed on Thursday, a day after the meeting with the Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology.
5 members of META participated in this meeting held at BTRC office in Agargaon of the capital at the office of the chairman of the commission. The delegation included Meta Public Policy Head Rujan Sarwar, Privacy and AI Matter Expert Arian Jimenez, Content Subject Matter Expert Nayantara Narayan, Content Policy Specialist Jonathan Lewis and Policy Program Manager Rusi Teo.
In the meeting, BTRC Chairman requested the delegation to take more effective measures to stop rumors and misinformation on various issues by drawing the attention of Facebook authorities. M Taifur Rahman, Deputy Director of Digital Security Cell of the organization was present at that time.
Sources of the meeting revealed, in the meeting the BTRC Chairman was briefed by the Meta delegation on the current significant issues of Facebook including their activities in Bangladesh and regular communication with BTRC. During the discussion, the delegation thanked the chairman for facilitating the management of the activities of Meta with BTRC due to the long good relationship.
In the meeting, the BTRC chairman urged the Facebook authorities to take more decisive action to stop rumors and misinformation. At the same time, if there is no proper filtering through the large number of internet users in the country, he also highlighted the fear of spread of false propaganda rumors through those using Facebook/Instagram platform. Also, the chairman of BTRC stressed the importance of the Facebook authorities to take quick action in this regard so that no criminal can remain in custody by spreading rumors or slander.
He requested the Facebook authorities to pay more attention to using the Meta platform so that criminals cannot conduct fraudulent activities, betting or gambling campaigns. For this purpose, he assured maximum cooperation from BTRC by calling for emphasis on introduction of technical system aimed at automatic detection and removal of this type of content through the use of artificial intelligence.
During the discussion, BTRC Chairman requested the Facebook delegation to conduct various types of awareness activities related to safe online use for the people of Bangladesh and take awareness campaign activities to increase the digital signature (Digital Literacy) of common people.
Rujan Sarwar, head of public policy at Meta, welcomed the BTRC’s views and vowed to work more closely with the BTRC.