The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on July 18 prohibited zero-rating of social media websites, online news portal bdnews24 reported. MediaNama obtained a copy of the order, available below. The move is a win for Net Neutrality in Bangladesh, but the regulator did not mention it as a factor in its decision — the BTRC said that providing social media for free was causing "unhealthy competition" and "used by dishonest persons to carry out unnecessary criminal activities". Bangladesh in 2017 created a licensing regime for online media, and passed a Digital Security Act in 2018, under which it detained a journalist and a columnist for "spreading rumours" amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 4G internet access in Rohingya camps has been shut down since last September. Zero rating in Bangladesh As a result of this order, Facebook's Free Basics, which provides access to a stripped down zero-rated version of this internet, is no longer active in Bangladesh. A Facebook spokesperson declined to provide a comment on the record. Grameenphone, a telco majority-owned by Norway-based Telenor, advertised a messaging pack that offered 20MB of WhatsApp data per day. Banglalink, another telco, also reportedly offered WhatsApp and Facebook for free in certain plans, while metering other internet usage normally. Robi, a telco that's a joint venture between Airtel and Malaysia-based Axiata, also offered a WhatsApp-Facebook plan at 50 taka (₹44) for 1GB of data on those platforms. As a result of Saturday's order, these plans will have to stop. Aside from India, Net Neutrality regulations…
