Facebook Controversy – Banned by High Court
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It has been brewing for some time what resulted from all the commotion might not be to every ones liking, for me its a mixed reaction,.
First lets recap a little, though i doubt any reader of ours will be oblivious to this storm but still lets see what happened.
Sana Saleem has written a very well rounded article for it at Dawn blog here, in summary it started with SouthPark censoring an episode after receiving threats from a muslim extremist group an artist Molly Norris reacted in a radio interview which was made as a base by some one else and a facebook page for it was created, the artist later distanced herself from the campaign but the group lived on and people from both side started ba campaign to block or promote it. (Most of these links come from Sana’s article).
So this campaign in our country was getting more and more attention through SMS (i just received one promoting opening a site which will send ping requests to facebook), blogosphere and twitter. Today the final blow was dealt by Lahore High Court banning face book for about 10 days.
So this is about what has happened till now, few people are rejoicing while others are condemning it.
Basically I am against any such public ban of any kind, yes it is correct that the page was inciting hatred in Muslims, but blocking the whole website is not a solution, thank god no body suggested the court of banning the internet because it was the source to reach those pages, in my opinion what I see or not is my choice I personally have not yet seen the page even when it was visible why because i chose not to, (the posted link comes from google search). There were some sane efforts in promoting the positive side by promoting the phenomenon of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) his teachings his legacy. I also was going to boycott facebook but that would have been perfectly my own decision not some thing which was imposed on me. What next lets ban internet, maybe satellite TV because its showing all sorts of vulgarity and is responsible for destroying character of our young generation.
And before all of you people who are going to bash me for this let me put some history for you to consider, about a year back some groups were formed for denial of Holocast and there was a similar hue and cry for removal of those but Mark Zuckerberg, did not comply either, for me that is a brave decision and mind you all Mark Zuckerberg is himself a Jew so this should not be taken lightly also the pressure at that times was also immense by people such as Michael Arrington publically at TechCrunch and people here would agree with me that Arrington’s opinion has more implications on business and brand of facebook. here is his article
So at this time I don’t know if these issues are teething issues of social networking, because i believe this social networking is people powered, it should be only the users to decide what stays and what goes. These are my own two cents, and I am a Muslim and believe in Prophet, but i also strongly believe that no human being can ever effect his place in my heart.
And I will end this by some thing which has kept me puzzled since the Danish Cartoon Controversy, I was out of country at that time, my colleague an American called me to inquire well being of my family back home, his next few questions I was able to answer which were why was it happening and why we being Muslims were angry at the Publisher, his last question though have me thinking still if you have the answer do let me know it was
“I understand the anger of your countrymen and Muslims over the drawings and think that it should not have happened. However can you tell me why the protesters in your cities are burning shops owned by their fellows and burning vehicles of others who had nothing to do with it?â€
10:46 am
The painful thing is that Facebook is (one of the) hubs of online activity in Pakistan. What could have been a good chance to counter these cartoonists with peaceful online activity aimed at knocking some sense into them is also lost (at least through Facebook).
On another note, I know a lot of people who’s ‘shops’ in Facebook are burning right now … sad.
11:10 am
While I’m against the ban of Facebook, which clearly doesn’t make sense to me either, I am against the fact that Facebook says it will not allow obscene or indecent content of any kind. This includes hate speech, vulgarity or pornography etc. So why were holocaust denial pages not removed? Because the Facebook people thought it was good content that sells (Mark is a Jew after all). So apples to apples.
However, in principle, anything that harms people in any way should not be allowed. That’s an ethical and moral ground to stand on. So freedom of everything, but with responsibility, rather than flinging yourself freely to do anything and everything, because if that happens, one way or another you are affecting people.
1:18 pm
Only on word for banning decision, its sick! Not good for business at all.
I really don’t get it, all those who are shouting are the biggest hypocrite! They abuse the religion daily, disobey it and when someone say something, they went to kill that person. SICK!
1:36 pm
@Qazi, I have an answer to your last question: We as a nation have lots of man power at our disposal, and thus energy as well—due to unemployment, lack of recreational activities, etc—but this energy is not channelized.
The energy can be channelized in any way you want if you can provide the right kind of entertainment/ motivation, etc.
Consider, for example, the number of people who went to receive Sania and Shoaib at airport. How on earth somebody working from 9-6 for 5 days a week can take out time for this activity?
1:38 pm
Look like they PTA have blocked other websites too. When i am going to wikipeida i am getting following message “This Site is Restricted”. Even sometimes on google search…
1:51 pm
Court only order to block facebook, but they have blocked youtube and wikipedia too… They should be blocking all porn websites, not these website… PTA is wasting their energy and time and not doing their job…
http://www.adailynewspaper.com/facebook-youtube-wikipedia-blocked-in-pakistan-7148
11:55 pm
nothng to worry… every cite will be opened other then face book… inshallah…
12:20 am
To answer the question asked:
if you love someone let say your mom and dad, you love them dearly…and someone in your neighboring apartment make a filthy cartoon about them and try to distribute in your apartment building where everyone can see the cartoon and clearly mentioned “hey this is Mr ABC (that’s you) mom “. You see this while coming back from work you get angry agitated totally out of your mind start throwing chairs in your room, throwing cricket bat on the tv, then you walk out try to take down it off from the Noticeboard where cartoon was posted. In anger you start threating that neighbor, police of that apartment building stops you of taking this cartoon off from the Noticeboard and tells you that “as per the Apartment Building law, it is known as Freedom of Speech and you better bugger off because we really don’t give a dime about your feelings”. Well you will go back in your apartment get more angry this time and was going to throw more stuff around and there cones your wise brother or sister ask you to calm down and simply write a letter to the Apartment Building Home Owner Association that “Freedom of Speech is healthy thing, however great power comes with great responsibility. ”
Here I demonstrated Four Type of people:
1- power abuser
2- Mr ABC who is blind by the love and it is understandable
3- The Power Organizer ( Home Owner Association )
4- the person who is also just like Mr. ABC, but with wisdom and know how to deal in that kind situation.
In Pakistan there are many like Mr. ABC who are emotional and it’s because their love is honest and deep. Than there are that 4th kind of people too who are wise they take things seriously like Mr. ABC however they take actions instead of throwing stuff around. Either people like Mr. ABC should be banned from street of Pakistan or Wise kind if people get more in media and lead the Mr. Abcs.
Either way what is wrong is always stay wrong. Nothing less nothing more Power Abuser are guilty too, and they do like to ignite it a lot and abusing the Power they have…thus the power abuser.
12:30 am
About the question put to you, i think its because the people who do such acts think they’re showing their unity and their power and strength, but what they don’t realize is that they’re just burning a tyre – for instance. Big Deal. I respect our patriotism but when in the name of unity, Pakistanis fall prey to their violent instincts, it is extremely disappointing and embarrassing for the whole nation.
9:06 pm
Came across this:
http://pakistanherald.com/Articles/One-Facebook-Two-Faces-One-is-Real-Ugly-2356
Reality is that “Freedom of Speech” is considered to be the right of a few.