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TikTok glitches, govt says it hasn’t interfered

Shamim Ahmed
16 Aug 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 15 Aug 2022 22:26:42
TikTok glitches, govt says it hasn’t interfered

A number of users in Bangladesh have claimed that they are not being able to upload and watch content on the popular social media platform TikTok since Sunday afternoon.

International Internet Gateway (IIG) operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) say traffic on TikTok is now either zero or down to 20 per cent compared to the regular times.

The government says it has not taken any step against TikTok’s operations in the country and the source of the problem may be in the app.

Talking to The Business Post, some TikTok users said that they are also facing difficulty in accessing the app along with the problem with the content upload.

However, many others who use mobile internet say they are facing no problems while accessing or using TikTok at all.

Private university student Tuhin Mahmud said he tried several times to access the app and every time, it took way more time than usual when loading or refreshing the home page.

Professional TikTok content creator Sumon Jaman said he was unable to upload new videos in his account since Sunday afternoon.

IIG operator Fiber@Home Limited’s Chief Technology Officer Sumon Ahmed said Tiktok has one-fifth of the total internet users. “After the TikTok app became inaccessible for many users, our traffic significantly dropped from Sunday afternoon.”

“Since then, our traffic has gone down by 50-70 GBPS,” he said around 5pm Monday.

“We have discussed the issue with other IIG operators. Most of them said their traffic has also stopped while some said their operations are running partially,” Sumon added.

Reached for comment, Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Post that the government has taken no decision to stop or limit TikTok’s operations in Bangladesh. “This situation may have occurred due to some problem in TikTok itself.”

“The government has not interfered and has nothing to do with it,” he stressed.

“However, the High Court will give a directive on the draft regulatory guideline on Over-The-Top (OTT) or streaming and social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. If anything like that was implemented, other platforms would have faced a similar impact as well,” the minister added.

Md Emdadul Hoque, president of the Internet Service Providers Association Bangladesh (ISPAB), said, “The problem started on Saturday but got worse since Sunday afternoon.

“Against the usual, traffic on Tiktok has gone down to 20-25 per cent. Many are failing to access the app while many are losing connections frequently even after managing to log in.”

He said Tiktok may have some regional problems but its authorities would have notified earlier if it’s something like that.

No such notification on this issue was found on Tiktok’s website until Monday afternoon.

TikTok removed 3.5 million Bangladeshi videos between January and March this year because they violated the community guidelines.

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