Govt's cyber crime units lack coordination
Ministries and government agencies that have units to monitor and investigate cyber crimes need to coordinate activities to protect victims, mostly women, of such crimes, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim said yesterday.
She said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the home and information and communication technology (ICT) ministries, cells in the Criminal Investigation Department, Rapid Action Battalion, and detective branch of police worked on cyber crimes separately.
"But there is a lack of coordination which leads to overlapping of work and waste of fund," she said, stressing the need for having a central point from which online activities could be monitored and security ensured.
The state minister was addressing a roundtable on ways to restrain the abuse of information technology in violence against women, organised jointly by the Prothom Alo and Brac at the newspaper's office in the capital.
Prothom Alo's Associate Editor Abdul Quaiyyum quoted a UN report of October, stating that 73 percent of women in the world are subjected to cyber violence.
Tarana said BTRC received 220 complaints this year, of which 60 percent were made through Facebook.
"However, when complaints were made to the Facebook authority they did not find the content offensive even if it was so in the context of our country. Plus they tend to neglect requests to close the pages when there is a bulk of complaints," she said.
Tarana hoped that a treaty with Facebook would help reduce posts causing political and sexual harassment. The government will also buy software to filter contents, she said.
However, Brac's Gender, Justice and Diversity Director Sheepa Hafiza, and Prof Sadeka Halima of sociology and Prof Suraiya Pervin of computer science and technology of Dhaka University, emphasised teaching children on how to use the internet properly.
"Men commit these crimes because they feel they enjoy a sense of impunity as...very few cases are filed under the ICT law," said KM Tanjibul Alam, a lawyer.
Noting that most police officers as well as legal and judicial practitioners are not yet familiar with digital technology, he suggested creating expert units in law enforcement agencies and district legal offices.
Mahbooba Panna, deputy secretary, Information and Communication Technology Division; Suparna Roy, local development expert, Access to Information Programme, Prime Minister's Office; Luna Shamsuddoha, chairman of IT company Dohatec; Taslima Miji, chief executive officer of Techmania Dhaka; and Shahana Siddiqui, head of content and communications for www.maya.com.bd also spoke.
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