Bangladesh Blocks Facebook — No One Cares

Bangladesh has blocked it’s subjects from accessing the popular social networking site Facebook because the Bangladeshi regime finds certain pages on the site offensive to their Islamic religion.

Bangladesh is home to approximately 158,065,841 people, who each earn about $1,600 a year (adjusted for purchasing power parity).  This ranks Bangladesh #193 out of 227 nations in terms of per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

The total GDP of Bangladesh in real terms is $93.2 billion — approximately that of Cincinnati.  Of course, Cincinnati has a much smaller population.

Bangladesh are so poorly governed that very few people have access to computers or the Internet.  There are only 1.39 million telephone lines in the entire country.  Only 556,000 of the nations 158,065,841 people have access to the Internet.

This despicably poor nation manages nonetheless to justify the salary of a “Chief Telecommunication Regulatory”, which may be the reason there is so little actual telecommunication in Bangladesh.  The person currently holding that position is Zia Ahmed.

Ahmed blocked Facebook because a local youth, Mahbub Alam Rodin, uploaded caricatures of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. Such is the power of petty bureaucrats in the third world. This type of governmental overreach is a major reason why it is the third world. The young man was captured by the “Rapid Action Battalion” and is currently being held by the government.

Members from low-income nations such as Bangladesh usually cost social networking sites more to service than they earn in ad revenue. Due to the negative value of the Bangladeshi members who are now blocked from the service, Facebook most likely profited from this ban in terms of reduced operating costs.

Technologically savvy Internet users in Bangladesh are still able to access Facebook through web proxy sites.