In view of preventing rumours, false news and propaganda through the social media, the Election Commission (EC) authorities and the Facebook authorities are going to hold a joint meeting today (Thursday).
Both the authorities said rumours, false news and propaganda could not affect the upcoming 12th National Elections expected to be held in the last week of the month of December this year.
According to EC officials, three officials from Facebook's Singapore office will meet the high officials of the Election Commission, including the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
Ruzan Sarwar, the head of Public Policy for Bangladesh at Facebook's parent company Meta, will lead the Facebook delegation.
It has been noticed that ill-motivated vested quarters remain busy with spreading of false news, rumours and propaganda through the social media like Facebook, Youtube and tweeter. And since the next national election in Bangladesh is nearing to closer, the vested quarters have intensified their activities as part of their attempts to mislead the users of the social media as well as the mass people.
According to sources, some other groups like yutubers and admins of different pages in the Facebook are also found to be engaged in the wrong doings in view of being benefitted commercially through illegal means.
According to sources, since the condition of the social media is considered to be volatile, the authorities concerned have taken the initiative of taking measures through discussion.
EC officials said that CEC Kazi Habibul Awal will hold a meeting with a
delegation of the Facebook officials on preventing propaganda on social media.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at the Election Commission building in
Dhaka's Agargaon at 11:00am.
Asked, Election Commission (EC) Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath said a three-member delegation of the Facebook is supposed to join the meeting with the CEC and other high-officials of the EC.Talking about the reason behind the meeting, he said, "The national election is approaching. With that in mind, there can be a discussion on how to prevent propaganda on social media."
The government of Bangladesh in support with authorities concerned, shut down several hundred websites, Facebook pages and Youtube channels for their activities, which were unruly and harmful to the society and to the people.
