Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Bangladesh Shuts Down Messaging Services Viber and Tango to Quell Violence

posted by LaminatorX on Monday January 19 2015, @10:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the papers-please dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Bangladeshi telecom authorities shut down smartphone messaging and voice services Viber and Tango, which have become a popular communication medium for supporters of the anti-government protests now in their third week.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission closed down the apps “for the time being” on orders from law enforcement and security agencies, a commission spokesman told AFP. He did not give reasons for the decision, but local television station Channel 24 said Viber and Tango were shut down to prevent protesters from “exchanging information” across the country.

Viber and Tango have been popular among opposition protesters, including activists from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies who have launched a crippling nationwide transport blockade to try to topple the government. The protests have turned increasingly violent with activists firebombing hundreds of buses and trucks, and security forces retaliating with live bullets or tear gas. At least 25 people have died in the latest violence including about a dozen burnt to death after protesters firebombed buses.

http://www.bgr.in/news/bangladesh-shuts-down-messaging-services-viber-and-tango-to-quell-violence/

[Also Covered By]: http://phys.org/news/2015-01-bangladesh-messaging-quell-violence.html

Do you think that such measures really work, either in the short term or in the long term ?? Given the above situation how would you handle it ?

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Bangladesh Shuts Down Messaging Services Viber and Tango to Quell Violence | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 25 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:07AM (#136240)
    No, I'm not trying to sit around watching shitty old racist cartoons, its mlk day so turned it off soon as i saw the "indian". Sorry, you said documentary and i thought that you may have mislinked. I don't think that at&t will be maintaining their traditional phone service forever. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-28/at-and-t-proposes-alabama-florida-for-digital-tests-to-lose-rules [businessweek.com] so could be all voip in the future bc that has the highest call quality. Jacob Applebaum has started a " rel="url2html-14304">https://people.torproject.org/~ioerror/skunkworks/moto_e/"> [soylentnews.org] project to return a motorola e to a low tech state. I was hoping that someone else had started a similar project.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:12AM (#136241)

    wow, can't even html applebaum moto e project [torproject.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:53AM (#136250)

    I was hoping that someone else had started a similar project.

    Yeap, as old as the Native Americans: smoke signals.
    (happy now?)

  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:21AM

    by anubi (2828) on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:21AM (#136271) Journal

    Apparently, there is a several smart phone ad-hoc networks [wikipedia.org] (SPAN) in the fray.

    Firechat is one of them.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:33PM (#136410)

    Why? Did he look too much like Mohamed?