The government of Bangladesh has banned the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp in an attempt to "stop criminals." Following the announcement of the ban, the confusion caused by the ban saw the entire country losing the Internet for longer than 60 minutes.

According to reports, citizens of Bangladesh have little to no access to services such as Facebook Messenger, Viber and WhatsApp. Each individual Internet service provider is using its own method of implementing the ban, and some people have reported being able to get through.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the government allowed some social media apps, but that criminals began to misuse them for their own gain and that, as a result, the apps will temporarily be stopped to catch the offenders.

While the government did claim that the goal of the ban was to fight criminals, most suggest that it was instead to try and put an end to an uproar following the quickly-approaching executions of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, political leaders that were accused of "crimes against humanity." Their offenses included genocide that occurred during the war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. The executions brought about outrage among supporters of the two political figures, however, the executions took place on Saturday.

The reports suggest that Facebook is sometimes available for some ISPs and that the chat function is sometimes available despite the rest of the site being unavailable.

It's not yet clear exactly when the ban will be lifted.

Via: Gizmodo