How Bangladesh agencies are suspected of taking down websites, YouTube channels of dissidents abroad
Spoof websites and false copyright claims are being used to silence critics. Mar 14, 2021 · 07:30 am Police escort Mahmudur Rahman, then acting editor of the daily newspaper Amar Desh, to court in Dhaka in April 11, 2013. | Andrew Biraj/Reuters
On December 8, Oliullah Noman, the executive editor of the newly established online Bengali news website,
Amar Desh UK, received an email from its host DigitalOcean. It started friendly enough – “Hi there” – but its contents were far from it. The email was a notice stating that an article on the website was “the subject of a notification of claimed copyright infringement” under the US law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. DigitalOcean requested Amar Desh UK to take down the offending article from its website within three days or they “may disable access” to the website.