Dhaka: State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Division Tarana Halim on Saturday told Parliament that social networking site Facebook authorities have so far blocked 87 Facebook accounts, pages and links of Bangladesh at the request of the government.

The government of Bangladesh requested Facebook authorities in the last 18 months to block a total of 196 accounts, pages and links for having contents of violence, religious instigations and other objectionable matters, she said replying to a tabled question from Awami League MP Amina Ahmed (Women Seat-34).

"Of these, the Facebook authorities blocked 87 accounts, pages and links responding to our requests within 48 hours," Tarana said.

In reply to another tabled question from Jatiya Party MP Md Shawkat Chowdhury (Nilphamari-4), the state minister said Bangladesh Post Office earned Tk 301 core revenue in the 2015-'16 fiscal year, which is Tk 23 core higher than the target of Tk 278 crore.

She said the target was set to earn Tk 309 core revenue in 2016-'17 fiscal and Tk 111 crore revenue was collected in the first five months of the current fiscal. “So, the revenue collection is expected to be higher than the target,” she added.

Tarana said a project titled 'Post e-center for Rural Community' was taken to make the rural post offices more functional. Under the project, some 8,500 post offices, including 500 upazila-level ones will be turned as e-centers. It will be possible to turn the post offices as e-centers by June this year, she added.

Responding to a tabled question from AL MP Kamal Ahmed Majumder (Dhaka-15), the junior minister said the number of internet users is 6.68 crore out of 16 crore population and the internet density is 41 percent in the country.