Bangladesh, in the center of the Desi world (courtesy Google Maps)

While the rest of the technorati have been shooting Facebook down left and right, claiming it’s time has come and calling for its demise (yeah, we’re guilty of it too ; – ) Facebook has been making moves.

The AFP reported today that Facebook has been accepted into Bangladesh– that is the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission removed the ban it previously had on the site. Now the 162 million people of that nation can sing its praises and loathe its ever-confusing privacy policies.

That said, don’t expect to see a whole bunch photos of drunk Bangladeshi co-eds precariously posing, fully intoxicated all over the sidewalk as one would in say….Britain three years ago. Rather, Facebook has promised to remove “offending images and content.”

Personally, I love to see how different cultures make use of Facebook. With more than 400 million users, and perhaps north of 160 million more, it’s gonna be great to see our Desi friends share all that they have to offer to each other and the rest of the world through the social media Zuck’s platform. I really interested in seeing how they deal with “blaspheomous content” though, considering that it’s nearly impossible to limit that stuff when you have a profile here in the US.

What’s interesting here is that despite all the sketchiness that any humongous social media has to offer (you could really input any SMN from MySpace to LinkedIn), Facebook’s troubles started with the posting of some photos of the Prophet Muhammed back on 29 May of 2010. Islamic culture is traditionally deeply offended at image-based and physical depictions of Muhammed, so much so that even their historical cinema only goes as far as to show a hand or a foot when he’s characterized. The BBC also reports that YouTube was also banned from the nation for hosting videos of Bangledeshi politicians angrily arguing with one another.

It’s interesting to see Facebook, an American company, complying with these directives. A while back, Google, another American company, tried to leave American ideals like free speech out of the business equation when it opened up its services overseas which China. We all know how that worked out…

The bottom line is that being principled matters. The default cannot be social when there are things that your populations aren’t allowed to share– even across cultural boundaries. I’m glad we can export some of the best parts of Americanism overseas, but it saddens me that we often push the monetary gains before the social ones. Especially when it comes to technologies defined by their social elements.