Dhaka: Three ministers of Bangladesh government are holding talks with popular social media networking site Facebook officials at the secretariat at about 10:30am on Sunday.

Minister of home affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, state minister for post and telecommunications Tarana Halim, and state minister for ICT division Junaid Ahmed Palak are present in the meeting with Facebook authorities.

It, however, has no relation with the temporary suspension of the Facebook by the government on security issues.

The meeting with Facebook comes at a time when the social networking platform, which has nearly 1.8 billion users, is suspended in Bangladesh based on security grounds.

On 30 November, Tarana Halim sent a letter to Facebook showing her interest in sign

The world’s one of the most popular networking site gave their consent on 1 December for discussion in reply to a letter sent by the state minister for post and telecommunications, Tarana Halim.

‘Facebook Public Policy Director for India and South Asia, Akhi Das, in a reply to my letter expressed their readiness to sit with us . . . hopefully, we will sit on 6 or 7 December in Dhaka,’ Tarana Halim told BSS.

The state minister informed that she sent a letter to Facebook authorities showing interest to reach a deal to ensure cyber security, specially violence against women.

‘The facebook authority on 1 November responded positively and shown their interest to sit with us,’ she said.

‘I have been raising the issues in different platform repeatedly especially about violence against women on Facebook. Hundreds of women are being victimized every day, which is alarming for our society and country. But, we didn’t get any positive feedback from the concerned authorities,’ added Tarana.

In Bangladesh, over 30 million people are active on Facebook and their number is increasing regularly.

At this moment, facebook has no agreement with Bangladesh regarding any objectionable contents. The government is working to reach a deal with facebook authority aimed at curbing people’s harassment in the social networking site.

Tarana Halim said, ‘The then BNP-Jamaat alliance government in 2006 had the chance of a deal with the facebook authority for indemnity of contents, but they overlooked it. As a result, in the facebook authority is not cooperating with the government’s requirements.’

On 18 November, the government put restriction on the social networking site temporarily following the Supreme Court’s rejection the review petitions of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.