Staff Correspondent:

The main reason Elon Musk’s Starlink is invited and being launched in Bangladesh is to stop the business of online shutdown forever, said Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Tuesday (February 25).

“The Sheikh Hasina dictatorship shut down the internet on scores of occasions during her 16 years rule. Internet shutdown is a favourite tool of the dictators and autocrats to crack down protests or suppress any major opposition agitations,” he wrote in a post shared on his verified Facebook profile this morning.

“But in the process, hundreds of thousands of freelancers were affected. Some lose their contracts and jobs forever,” he said.

The press secretary further said, “Starlink’s arrival in the Bangladesh market means no future government can fully shut down the internet. At least BPO firms, call centres and freelancers will never be hit by any new attempt to stop the net.”

Starlink is a satellite-based high-speed internet service owned by Elon Musk, one of the world’s leading tech entrepreneurs.

Recently, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus invited Musk to visit Bangladesh and launch Starlink satellite service in the country.

In a letter to Musk on 19 February, the chief adviser told Musk that his visit to Bangladesh would allow him to meet Bangladeshi young men and women who will be among the main beneficiaries of this leading technology.

Earlier, on 13 February, Yunus held a video call with Musk. During the discussion, they explored potential areas of collaboration and talked in detail about launching Starlink’s internet service in Bangladesh.

Yunus extended an invitation to Musk to visit Bangladesh for the potential launch of Starlink services, underscoring the significance of this initiative for national development, to which Musk responded positively.