Dhaka: State minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim on Tuesday said the government will sit with the Facebook authorities this month to prevent posting of ‘offensive’ contents.

‘We will discuss with the Facebook authorities to solve the problems and take necessary steps against those who run pages from abroad for spreading fundamentalism and militancy,’ she said while speaking at the inaugural programme of a two‐day international workshop on cybercrimes and safe internet in a city hotel.

She said social networking sites run their activities as per their own policies but they should formulate and implement their policies in such a way so that those don’t go against the norms and laws of any country.

‘Social network sites should formulate their policies considering the social, religious and cultural values of different countries. They should have separate monitoring cells which will communicate with different countries’, said Tarana.

The State Minister said that the facebook has already shut down the activities of several pages for their provoking comments and posts after responding to the government request within 48 hours.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Choudhury inaugurated the event as the chief guest.

Facebook India and South Asia public policy director Ankhi Das, and delegates of INTERPOL, ITU, AMTOB, are also participating at the workshop.

Posts and Telecommunication Division secretary Shyam Sundar Sikdar, BTRC acting chairman Brig Gen (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan and Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO) Secretary General Shola Taylor presented key note papers.

High officials of law enforcing and security agencies, representatives of mobile phone operators and officials of posts and telecommunications division and BTRC are also attending the workshop.