I was just waiting for it, an official response from Facebook after it got banned in Pakistan, thanx to ignorant attitude showed by Facebook’s officials for not removing a content from it site which is harming the feelings of Muslims all over the world. I was expecting that they will apologize for not being able to take action quickly and they will remove the page now, but hell no, they are actually defending it. Facebook said in a statement to AFP, “We are analysing the situation and the legal considerations, and will take appropriate action, which may include making this content inaccessible to users in Pakistan,” – Like users in Pakistan doesn’t know how to access it. All those IT Geeks are sharing their knowledge on twitter, on how to bypass the proxy.
But the best part comes here. The statement from the Palo Alto, California-based social network said:
“we want Facebook to be a place where people can openly discuss issues and express their views, while respecting the rights and feelings of others. With now more than 400 million users from around the world… we sometimes find people discussing and posting about topics that others may find controversial, inaccurate, or offensive,” it said. “While some kinds of comments and content may be upsetting for someone – criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or political ideology, for example – that alone is not a reason to remove the discussion,” it said. “We strongly believe that Facebook users have the freedom to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content, groups or pages that speak out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.”
As statement says, they don’t take down content just so easily, even though its targeting any religion or politics. But here i know lot of my friends, those suffered with getting their profile, groups or pages being removed without any prior notice and without any valid reason. Just an auto mail from Facebook saying you have violated the rules of targeting certain group, religion and country. And Facebook doesn’t even allow them to save their data, like pictures, videos, notes. They just have to start over everything. And here it goes, last one they says:
“Nazi content is illegal in some countries” but said “that does not mean it should be removed entirely from Facebook.” “Most companies approach this issue by preventing certain content from being shown to users in the countries where it is illegal and that is our approach as well,” it added.
So why don’t they do with the same thing for those profiles and groups. Why this rule is being followed now only. Aren’t they just being Hypocrite.
I am always against the censorship of Internet, but this ban on FaceBook is not censorship. It is to register Pakistan's protest. via @Hameedullah Khan
For those who has suffered this, got their profile or groups has been blocked or deleted by Facebook, please share with us. What reason they gave you and was there any prior notice?
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12 comments:
i totally agree you
they have dual policies
they will get your pages down instantly but when its about Islam, or about muslim, they come up with lazy excuses.
this ban should not be lifted until facebook does the action as demanded the people of Pakistan and other Muslims around the world
100 % agreed
How bout making a group about Hitler should kill more Jews and make the Holocaust real.
And then announce an event of creating cartoons of Hitler Killing jews and having fun.
What Will facebook do? Keep there So called freedom of speech filter off ???
I am also agreed with u..as it is now clear to every one that FB is showing its biased behavior.....One of my friend was asked some times ago that you are using Islamic content so much on your profile and based on this reason his profile was banned for some time...
plus it's in the terms and conditions of FB that if there are more than 200 reports to certain page...it will get ban...but not happening in this case....its totally injustice and biased behavior of FB...
In my opinion they want us to get use to of these things so that they can do more damage in future...I am proud of this action taken by PTA..FB should be ban till they don't apologize on there shameful act....
If any reader here has any doubt about Facebook's biasness check out: http://gawker.com/5541830/is-facebooks-ceo-silencing-criticism
Where is the freedom of speech now?
I strongly support this decision by Pakistani Government.
I am a regular user of facebook and never seen such content posted out on facebook before. How can facebook allow such disgraceful contents to be shown on facebook??? Even though I am a regular user of facebook, I agree that the court has made the right decision and I strongly support it. All contents and websites which are against our beloved Prophet MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM) should be removed.
'If we want to protest against facebook we should use other means apart from posting on facebook'. The reason being for that is because I personally think facebook has deliberately let users and groups post such contents.
This seems to me like a deliberate offence against Muslims all over the world. I was on facebook yesterday reporting all pages as abusive contents against our religion and on the other hand, clicking the 'like' button on all pages which are against the offensive contents. I think we should at least play some role in preventing this disgraceful act from happening.
Well I am totally against the banning of Facebook in Pakistan..here are a couple of reasons why...
1) What would prophet do in this scenario? What he did in his life? Did he ban abu lahab? And abu jahal? And abu sufian? Or he kept communicating with them?
2) If somebody has an opinion/belief which is against ur opinion/belief/sensibilities, is expressing that belief a crime? E.g. Christians believe that Jesus is God; and muslims believe he is man. How insulting it can be to a christian that we consider their God a man? So shud they ban all sites, channels which claim Jesus is a man?
3) Emotions are important; but more important than that is channelling them. Wasting ur emotions and energies in reactionary things and never being proactive is one of the reasons that muslims are most poor, most illiterate, most closed minded, most backward people in the world;
Peace!
To peace,
In response to your comment bullet point no.2:
they way facebook users are expressing the disgraceful contents are unacceptable. I don't think I would go around and posting dirty comments about other religions. In point no.2 you are talking about expression belief. We never go around raising such issues and discriminating other religions. Let me remind you. If users are expression their belief the way they just did on facebook now then that is wrong. If you look at the contents you can see clearly that they are not expressing heir beliefs. If they wanted to express their beliefs they would do that in an appropriate manner and not putting up these kind of drawings.
In regards to your point no.3. I think we should have our right to express our feelings. If the court has done this by blocking such contents, I think it has created some awareness of emotions.
This was the typical reaction I expected from Facebook. However, I still feel Muslims needed to show the more responsible and dignified response. Blocking Facebook isn't the solution. Neither is banning Youtube, Flickr or whatever other website puts up these images.
My views are the same as Anonymous has commented above. Rather than letting our emotions flare up, we need to understand this from the point of view of our religion. Too often, with very little knowledge of religion, people do things in the name of Islam and protecting Islam's honor. Islam doesn't need us but we need to obey our Creator and follow in the footsteps of His Messenger(pbuh).
It would have been so much more prudent, responsible and dignified if the Muslim online community grabbed it as a chance to counter evil with good, by sharing information about our Prophet(pbuh). That was what would make the more long lasting and positive impact on the world rather than being viewed as people who're ready to cut themselves off from the world the moment they face any kind of antagonism.
It's time to go back to the authentic sources of our Deen and see how the Prophet(pbuh) and His companions lived their lives... open, engaging and confident. :)
I agree that public of Pakistan does get a bit too much emotional and take steps without thinking through the solution thoroughly first. I don't know if that's right or not but that's how they are expressing their emotional feelings and anger, even those people who do not use facebook and other websites which are blocked.
What I would like to say is that facebook and everyone else in the whole world knew the reactions of people when the Denmark person drew sketches a few years ago. I personally think facebook and other people involved knew that public of Pakistan would get get too emotional like they did before and they would again get angry and start demolishing buildings in Pakistan etc.. Maybe they wanted that to happen again??????
Noor here,
Honestly people, I'm not surprised by FB's comments on the issue. And what I urge all, well-concerned, and Mohammed(PBUH) loving muslims is logic and cool. Taking offense to injustice or disrespect is one thing, but making a drama about it is another. Pakistan, as well as people of Pakistan tend to be over dramatic and irrationally sensitive about religious sacrilege. My dears, you all need not waste your precious health, time, and money indulging these Western idiots who will do anything for fame and wealth. Take a deep breath, sit back, use your education and realize that God loves Muhammad(PBUH) more than entire humanity combined from Adam's time till Judgment Day. And you still think that those who disrespect Him and His beloved Prophet would go unpunished???
Food for thought.
ps. Good blog Ammar.
Great piece of writing Ammar, I'm 100% agree.
Regards:
Mehvish
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