Facebook should play a role in employment creation along with making connections: Palak
3 representatives of Meta met Palak
State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak held a meeting with Rujan Sarwar, head of public policy at Meta Bangladesh, privacy, AI expert Arian Jimenez and content expert Nayantara Narayan.
The state minister drew the attention of the Facebook delegation in the meeting about taking action against wrong information on Facebook, creating new job opportunities, etc. At the same time, Palak called for the establishment of a regional office in Bangladesh considering Bangladesh as the most fertile place for investment in the future.
However, none of the delegation gave any clear assurance of these calls or demands. Md. Abdul Bari, head of the government's Enhancing Digital Government and Digital Economy project and policy advisor, were present at the meeting held at the State Minister's office at the ICT Tower on Wednesday.
At the end of the meeting, Zunaid Ahmed Palak presented a book written on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the guests.
Earlier in the discussion, State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told the representatives of Meta that Bangladesh regularly asks for information from Facebook. But Facebook gave the first information in 2016. In order to ensure the safety of the people of the country, we strongly urge the establishment of a regional office in Bangladesh so that we can get any information from Facebook as soon as we ask for it.
He said that the government has taken an initiative to create an AI powered government brain in the country to make public and private services easier. The government wants to enact an AI (Artificial Intelligence) Act to reduce negative uses of AI and reduce risks. META can participate in the drafting of Bangladesh's AI policy if desired.
He also said that the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy are not only a local issue but also a global issue. We are working on liberal and modern legislation. We don't consider Meta just a company, we want Facebook to focus more on creating jobs and entrepreneurship in the tech sector.
State Minister Palak said, Facebook is a medium to connect people. I am working on the positive side of it and want to in the future. We want to legislate on the lines of policies of Singapore, America, Canada, European Union and India.
According to sources, the use of Bengali AI to identify hate speech in Bengali content on Facebook, content moderation considering the country's religious values and cultural heritage also received importance in the meeting. The delegation of Meta, owned by social media Facebook, explained their position on the implementation of community guidelines for users' freedom of expression. At the same time, he assured to take the matters that have been called by the Bangladesh government seriously and present them before the management board.
