PUBG banned as it creates addiction: Mustafa Jabbar
Besides the game, BTRC has recently blocked around 20,000 porn sites and 2,000 online gambling sites
The government has blocked the popular online game Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) in Bangladesh on the grounds that it creates addiction among players and facilitates gambling, said Posts and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar.
Besides the game, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently blocked around 20,000 porn sites and 2,000 online gambling sites.
The ban also included popular community network site Reddit.
The government also recently blocked a website of the students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) where they posted their experiences of torture and harassment by the leaders and activists of the student wings of various political parties.
When asked, Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Standard that they cannot allow the internet to function as a platform of addiction and gambling.
"I figured out that Reddit has porn contents. On the other hand, PUBG causes addiction among the youths. And we did not bring internet to the country for addiction and pornography," he said.
Reddit, an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website, is a widely popular site all over the world for creative knowledge sharing.
On the other hand, PUBG is another popular online game, with over 50 million players worldwide.
However, the BTRC, upon recommendations by different agencies, has blocked these sites.
Md Najmul Islam, additional deputy police commissioner of the cybercrime unit, said, "We have decided to ban this game [PUBG] considering the psychosocial impact it is having on our youths. We do not have any other intention."
Sumon Ahmed Sabir, an ICT expert, said, "This culture of shutting down is not the right path.
"None of us want our children to come across pornographic contents. On that ground, I will not disagree with filtering websites for porn elements.
"But, it is not possible to completely block anything on the internet because there are alternative ways to access blocked sites."
Sumon laid emphasis on teaching children morality in the family and creating opportunities for entertainment.
"Coming in contact with people from different cultural backgrounds around the world through social media platforms on the internet, our children will be more liberal and global," Sumon said.
