DUSHANBE, March 13, 2012, Asia-Plus — According to the data from Socialbakers.com, 34,640 people now use the social-networking website Facebook in Tajikistan, which is 0.46 percent of Tajikistan’s population of the country or 4.95 percent of the overall number of Internet users in the country.
Socialbakers.com notes that over the past six months the number of Facebook users in Tajikistan has increased by 12,580 people.
Tajikistan is now ranked 170th among 213 countries in terms of use of Facebook. Men reportedly constitute 69 percent of Facebook users in the country.
37 percent of Facebook users in Tajikistan are young people aged 18 to 24. People aged 25 to 34 constitute 32 percent of Facebook users, people aged 35 to 44 constitute 13 percent and people aged 45 to 54 constitute 6 percent, and only 2 percent of Facebook users in Tajikistan are people aged 55 to 64.
We will recall that the Internet service providing companies in Tajikistan blocked access to social-network website Facebook and the Russian-language sites centrasia.ru, tjk.news.com, and zvezda.ru (Polyarnaya Zvezda) on March 2 in response to an order from the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan.
Tajik authorities cited “technical problem” for the loss of access to the sites and pledged that the problem would be tackled within the next few days. However, the Communications Service did not explain why it would need to shut down these particular websites.
Some media sources reported that the authorities issued the order the day after Polyarnaya Zvezda published an article entitled “Tajikistan on the Eve of Revolution,” which tjknews.com and centrasia.ru republished shortly after. It is unclear if maxala.org was targeted for similar reasons. The article covered a meeting in which Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon allegedly ordered security services to increase surveillance of local religious groups and members of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, news reports said. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the article also criticized Rahmon for growing authoritarianism, inattention to government corruption, and increasing poverty.
The Association of Internet Service Providers of Tajikistan denounced the move as a “direct threat” to Tajik national information security. A number of international organizations have condemned the Tajik government for regularly restricting access to websites critical of the government.
The Tajik authorities restored access to Facebook on March 9 following an outcry from international organisations over the blocking of independent media sites.
Meanwhile, access to the Russian-language sites centrasia.ru, tjk.news.com, and zvezda.ru (Polyarnaya Zvezda) remains blocked.
