Facebook Banned, Again

FROM ISSUE # 174 (June 2010) | IN THIS ISSUE
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Bangladesh has joined Pakistan to become the second South Asian nation to ban the popular site Facebook over religious concerns. Chief telecommunication regulator, Zia Ahmed, said that access to the site has been temporarily blocked because it was urging people to draw images of Prophet Muhammad and was publishing caricatures that may hurt the religious sentiments of people in the Muslim-majority nation. Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

Bangladesh ISP Association estimated that nearly a million in a country of 150 million were disappointed with the ban of Facebook. Said Facebook user Farzan Hasan, "The government should have stopped the objectionable page rather than blocking the entire site."

Baby Shock

South Korea was shocked with a case where a couple was sentenced to two years in prison for the charge of starving their daughter to death while they addictively played an online game raising a virtual child. The affidavit stated that the couple played at internet cafes on average 10 hours every day and bottle-fed their premature baby (who weighed about 2 kilograms) only once a day. The baby was fed rotten formula and was beaten when she cried out of hunger. The 41-year-old taxi driver, and his 25-year-old wife hid at a relative's home after an autopsy found the baby died of malnutrition.

"This constitutes an inhumane crime where the defendants abandoned even the most basic responsibilities as parents, and is unforgivable beyond any excuse or reason," the Suwon District Court said in the ruling. South Korea has raised concern over the severity of online gaming and internet addiction in the nation.