Faceless Facebook Accusations?
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Disclaimer : This is a post lined with hard facts and stitched up with strong opinions! 
With the Facebook blockade hitting the news, big time, last week I tried to excogitate on the matter of social media intrusion into our everyday life. Today’s times tell us how much social media means to us, & how inseparable it is a part of our everyday life. Social media is Of the people, By the people & For the people : A Perfectly sustained democracy. In the recent times, we’ve seen Social Media sweep up Presidential candidates to glory (Good Bye door-to-door canvassing) & also drag many others down, who had been a wee bit careless in exercising caution in their right to expression.
Mention Facebook & people instantly remember the buzz created last week due to Pakistan’s Ban owing to the “sacrilegious” application that blasphemed Prophet Mohammed by inviting people to take part in a ”Everybody draw Mohammed Day!” page.This activity went viral & received massive response from all corners of the world. Unfortunately, it also provided a platform to Muslim-bashers to post offensive caricatures of the prophet.
Bangladesh has blocked FB over the weekend too, leaving the social networking site marooned from another tranche of Muslim users even as Pakistan largely restored access to the site.This latest action against FB is again owing to the ‘EDMD!’ group. Access would be restored if the caricatures were expunged, Bangladesh telecoms regulatory said.
As for FB , it isn’t taking anymore chances and has blocked the controversial ”Everybody draw Mohammed Day!” page in India.
Pakistan has already banned 100s of websites including FB & YouTube. In fact a poll suggests that 70% of the Pakistanis want FB to be banned permanently.Petitions to ban the site completely will be in hearing later this month. In the mean time ISP apparently remain confused about the nature of the court order, while hundreds of links remain blocked.
One thing country leaders must realize,in my opinion, is that, these “blockings” will not in any way benefit the general public & will only either pull us back in time or make us seek less better alternative replacements.
The Social Media is unquestionably important. It’s increasingly de rigueur for businesses, both large and small, to have profile pages on Facebook and Twitter (by far the most popular social networks).In a win-win case like this, both sides are affected by the recent blows. Many of us have probably wondered if Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or other social media sites were just a passing fad or if they had real staying power. Many powerful statistics speak volumes about the influence and staying power of social media, like this one for eg: “Weekly traffic on Facebook in the U.S. tops weekly traffic on Google.”
“It is highly unfortunate that the government is taking staunch steps in banning social media websites across Pakistan in response to a campaign”
Freedom for the internet is all good,until it breaks the norms set up by the government of that country. Is the government ban on social networking sites justified? Well, the problem here actually is not about the country’s growth or security. Its about free will. If there is some internal security threat to the country , or if some really sensitive data has been compromised then there is some meaning in the ban. But, if one goes about banning sites just because the content in that site is offensive, then that just means imposing one’s opinions onto others, it amounts to revoking one’s right to see whatever he wants and then decide about it. I don’t think this will solve any problem, whatsoever. If such content shows up in a search engine, will they ban that too? Ridiculous, isn’t it? Sitting in another country I think I’m not in a position to speak about another country’s policies – apart from speculating the developments there.
Any freedom guaranteed by the constitution is subject to reasonable restrictions. The freedom of expression doesn’t give us the right to scathe others’ religious beliefs. There is always a very thin line between use and abuse. Was this such an exceptional case? Is the act of censoring ”Everybody draw Mohammed Day!” page, justified ? Voice your opinions! Lets hear you.
About the Author 
Gracelyne Fernando is a blogger from India who is a technology and Ad-media enthusiast & is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration. She loves participating in the social web & is an active user of both Facebook & twitter, ( @g33f ) not in that order.
There are mixed reactions to this ban many of my friends in Pakistan consider it to be an utterly useless action, one that will bear no result. Other’s think its the least they could have done after failing to get Facebook to ban or remove the page. Again this shows how important Facebook really is for them, perhaps a dimension to their life
well said Grace!
I second u…
hmm..yea..its not good “imposing one’s opinions onto others”..but again we may think that Pakistan with a conservative or rather reserved culture, unlike the “new India” may have considered this as the only option to such blasphemous apps. The developers must exercise extreme caution while creating religiously sensitive apps, or rather “why should they create sensitive apps for that matter ?” “freedom of expression” is good, but abuse of that privilege or right can lead to grave realities like 9/11 and the buzz about “Jihad”. it may not be correct to specify the kind of acts, but its the reality and the forces behind such acts have openly pronounced the reasons and we clearly know what their aims are. Religious harmony is something which can be fostered, but profaning the revered is the reason for indignation and in Pakistan’s eye the ban on FB can be justified.
nice post g33f..
It’ll be interesting to see how Facebook handles the bad PR as of late. You make some good points.