"Bangladesh: Online Surveillance, Control", 8 January 2020

Bangladesh authorities are blocking access to online news sites in violation of the right to free speech and access to information, Human Rights Watch said... The government has also adopted advanced methods to block or conduct surveillance on internet traffic and regulate online news sites without a sufficient legal framework to protect rights to privacy, expression, and access to information...

...In December 2019, the government announced that the Home Ministry was reviewing all Bangladeshi online news sites and that in the future all news sites will require government approval and registration...

The registration requirement has been in place since the publication of the 2014 National Broadcast policy and was reiterated in the 2017 National Online Mass Media Policy. These policies require online media outlets to register with an independent Broadcast Commission, which was to include civil society members, among them a “freedom of expression” specialist. However, this commission has never been formed and the Home Ministry is reviewing applications instead...

...Telecommunication providers were required to put the technology into operation by February 2019, and shortly thereafter the government blocked nearly 20,000 websites in what was described as an “anti-pornography” sweep, but which included popular blogging sites and social media apps. Experts have criticized the use of DPI for censorship and surveillance as an invasion of the privacy and a means for political repression...