Legal notice served to block fake news on YouTube, Facebook

A legal notice was served on Sunday seeking to block fake news, images, video links spread on YouTube and Facebook damaging the image of the country, nation, intellectuals and important personalities.

Supreme Court lawyer Md Arafat Hossain Khan sent the notice on behalf of Advocate Nilufar Anjum and Advocate Ashraful Islam.

The notice sent to the secretaries of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Information and Communication Technology and Department of Security Services, Chairman of BRC and BTRC, Inspector General of Police, Director General of Digital Security Agency, YouTube LLC, head of Bangladesh chapter of Meta Platform (Facebook) through Register Postal office.

According to the notice, social media users, viewers and subscribers have increased in Bangladesh in the last few years. But Facebook and YouTube have not established their supervisory mechanism to control in Bangladesh.

The image of the country, nation, intellectuals and important personalities is being undermined by spreading fake news, pictures and videos on YouTube and Facebook from within the country and outside the country, the notice said.

In this situation, fake news is spreading through Facebook and YouTube without any fact check due to lack of policy, which is a violation of sections 64 and 97(A) of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, Sections 8 and 25 of Digital Security Act, sections 46 of the ICT Act and Article 27, 31 and 39 of the Constitution, according to the notice.

The notice asked the authorities concerned to take necessary steps to immediately block and remove these links from YouTube and Facebook.

If the authorities concerned fail to remove these links as per the demand of legal notice within 48 hours, appropriate legal steps will be taken against them through filing a writ petition with the High Court in this regard, the notice threatened.