Somewhere in... blog
Type of site
Blog
Area servedBengali community worldwide
Ownersomewherein.net limited
URLSomewhere in... blog
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional

Somewhere in... blog (also known as Samu) is a Bengali blogging website. বাঁধ ভাঙার আওয়াজ or Voice of breaking obstacle is the slogan of the blog. It is the first[1] public blogging site in Bengali established in 2005[2] and the largest community of Bengali bloggers in the world.[3][4] It provides free blog posting for registered users. Registration is optional to read on blogs hosted on the site. Registration is required to post in or to comment on the post. Somewhere in blog was banned for eight months.[5]

Founders

Syeda Gulshan Ferdous Jana and her husband Arild Klokkerhaug are the founder of the blog.[2] She is the editor of Somewhere in... blog. Site's programmer Hasin Hayder developed a Bengali phonetic keyboard which is the first tool to write in Bengali using an English keyboard.[3] There were over 175 thousands individual registered bloggers with the site as of November, 2014[2] and 250 thousands in 2019.[6] The number of active bloggers are over 10,000.[7]

Activities

Somewherein Blog welcomes articles from a wide variety of topics. From book reviews to fitness to politics to travel to tech to patriotism to traveling. The organisation also have worked actively on the following, amongst many:

Temporary Ban by the Government

Between February 6th and 19th in 2019, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) took down nearly 20,000 sites in a war against pornography, gambling and other 'obscene contents'.[9] Somewherein Blog was one of the sites in this wholesale blocking.

With over 213,000 registered bloggers at that time, the blog always promoted liberal views. While the platform was listed for blocking for allegedly displaying pornographic content, the post and telecommunications minister also blamed the site for spreading atheism in Bangladesh. "Somewhereinblog was a very controversial platform. Its content was not only anti-government, but also scandalous. They were also responsible for spreading atheism in the country," The-then Minister of Post and Telecommunication, Mustafa Jabbar, told Deutsche Welle. [10]

Eventually, after being blocked for over 8 months, the site was 'unblocked' by the authorities in October 2019.[11]

Moderation

For bloggers of this site, there are four types of moderation status. They are safe, general, watch, and blocked. Moderators of this blog are also known as Modu. Post syndications are fully controlled by Moderators and Administrators.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Islam, Arafatul (2013-03-25). "Bangladesh gags award-winning blogger". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2014-11-09. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  2. 1 2 3 Ali, Idrees (2014-11-17). "Popular Bangladeshi Bloggers Continue to Face Challenges". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 2015-05-02. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  3. 1 2 Nova, Tasnuva Amin (2014-01-26). "Blogging, Bangla-style". Dhaka Tribune. Dhaka. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  4. ↑ Subramanian, Samanth (2015-12-21). "The Hit List". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 2015-12-14. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  5. ↑ "Govt unblocks somewhereinblog.net after eight months". Dhaka Tribune. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  6. ↑ "Bangladesh shuts down popular blogging site in crackdown". Arab News. 2019-02-27. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  7. ↑ Ahmed, Farid (2013-08-15). বাংলা ব্লগে রাজনৈতিক ইস্যুর প্রাধান্য [Bengali blog dominated by political issues]. BBC Bengali (in Bengali). Dhaka. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  8. ↑ "3rd Bangla blog day: freedom in clicks". ebangladesh.com. Archived from the original on 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  9. ↑ "Bangladesh blocks 20,000 websites in anti-porn 'war'". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  10. ↑ "Bangladesh blocks sites in anti-porn crusade – DW – 02/25/2019". dw.com. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  11. ↑ Hossain, Imran (25 Oct 2019). "Govt unblocks somewhereinblog.net after eight months". Dhaka Tribune.
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