State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak  on Thursday called upon the ministers and MPs to verify their personal Facebook pages and YouTube channels to stop propaganda with their fake IDs.

He also said that if ministers and MPs send their personal Facebook account and YouTube channel for verification, the ministry will help to verify those accounts.

“As a result, no one will be able to spread misinformation using your fake ID,” the state minister said in Parliament while replying to a supplementary question of independent MP Muhammad Saiful Islam.

In the supplementary question, Saiful Islam said that public representatives and businessmen are being impersonated by opening fake Facebook IDs, and YouTube channel.

He wanted to know about the steps taken by the ministry to stop these.

In response, the state minister said that this problem is not remaining only in Bangladesh, it is a problem all over the world where social media, wrong information, phishing, masking, such crimes are being committed.

“Many people are losing their lives due to spread of propaganda and rumours, many people are committing suicide,” the state minister said.

He said the propaganda is being carried out using the name of MPs and politicians. Deepfake videos or photoshop images, defamatory content of our students, sisters and daughters are being spread on social media.

“For that, Cyber Security Act has been enacted. If someone is aggrieved, he can take legal actions,” the state minister also said.

The state minister said the government is enacting the Personal Data Protection Act so that the information of any person or organization of Bangladesh cannot be taken out of the country without permission and cannot be misused.

In response to the supplementary question of Independent Syed Sayedul Haque, the ICT State Minister said, 98 percent of the area of Bangladesh is covered by 4G network at present.