Mobile internet services in Bangladesh were restored on Sunday after a 12-day outage, though access to social media and messaging apps remains blocked. The restoration follows a complete internet blackout on July 18, triggered by violent student protests against a new jobs quota system. The death toll from the protests has surpassed 200.
Fixed broadband connectivity was temporarily restored on July 24, but state minister for Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak stated that mobile internet services would remain offline until at least Sunday or Monday. According to the Business Standard, mobile internet came back online around 3 PM on Sunday. However, the Daily Star reported that platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are still blocked by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Palak has accused social media platforms of spreading “rumours and fake news” and ignoring government takedown requests. He has invited social media representatives to meet with government officials by July 31. Additionally, Palak announced a 5GB internet bonus for all mobile users, valid for three days. However, with social media blocked, data usage is expected to be low.
Palak reiterated that the internet blackout was not government-ordered but the result of “planned sabotage” by protesters who allegedly damaged three data centres in Dhaka’s Mohakhali area. He claimed these centres housed systems critical to 70% of the country’s ISP servers. However, an investigation by the Daily Star suggested the fire damage was minimal and questioned the timeline of events supporting the sabotage theory.
Digital rights groups, including Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, have highlighted Bangladesh’s history of throttling internet access during protests. The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association (BMPCA) has called for an independent enquiry to determine the true cause of the blackout.
Bangladesh, with over 131 million internet users at the end of 2023, relies heavily on mobile internet, accounting for 118.49 million users. The recent outage caused significant financial losses in the telecoms and digital commerce sectors, and disrupted mobile financial services.
