Thread: Facebook is completely banned in Pakistan

Because of the competition running on facebook about "Draw Mohammad Day" Pakistani government has completely blocked the site facebook.com on internet and on mobile phone too.

This is being done as "protest" against such competitions or activities that are against Islam and/or Muslims.

I do not use facebook but after knowing about this issue I hate it.

Wow that is Blatently racist, I had no idea. Definately changed my eyes in how I view facebook now as an organization.

The facebook administration was already requested to not allow such competitions or activities that can be against Islam or any other religion but they did not hear anything and let the users do what they want.

Over 12,000 users registered for this competition and they are going to submit their illustrations on 20th May, 2010.

So they completely ignored the governments requests to stop this competition. It is a violation of social and human rights. It's offensive.

But in the eyes of facebook now this controversy is only going to benefit them from the extra publicity now, which will generate more curiosity and interest in this competition.

Aweful

Yes, it is violation of social & human rights.

Yes it will give extra popularity to facebook but it will increase the hatred too. There are already very highly skilled "Muslim hackers" in the world who will not sit quietly, they will surely attack facebook.

Facebook exists in a free speech zone. However, private organizations such as Facebook have the right/power to censor whatever material they want on their own site if they choose. If they want to avoid a major disaster they could at least attempt to filter content related to hate as well as material which could lead to violence.

No Facebook or PayPal in Pakistan. It's a shame.

one would think, but instead they are feeding off of peoples ignorance by allowing this contest to continue.

In a way they are promoting racism, I could only imagine the kind of characters people are going to draw for this compettion

Well, bad news in fact. Everyone has the right what to see and to read, but in this case the goverment have decided to clsoe everything without even asking.

I agree with the government's decision banning a social website for promoting and encouraging hate in this world.

Are you really telling me that people are more offended because they can no longer access their facebook page, than upset about the fact that facebook is stereotyping an entire nationality for promotion and profit?

My dillema is that I'm in favor of free speech / free access to information and peace. I'm torn on the issue of sacrificing one for the other.

Originally Posted by vectro

My dillema is that I'm in favor of free speech / free access to information and peace. I'm torn on the issue of sacrificing one for the other.

oh wow that is a dilemma, peace and free speech definately conflicts with one another at times.

Ok, so hypothetically if facebook is not the one to blame for this, why call it "DRAW MUHAMMED"?

If it is not meant to be racist or sterotypical, why not have a "Draw your religion" or something like that.

To me its just as offensive if it was "Draw the Pope" "Draw Jesus" "Draw Satan" or "Draw the Illegal Aliens" "Draw your food stamp card" "Draw your eviction notice" "Draw your future life as Trailer Trash"

Ignorance is ignorance, and I even wrote it in my profile. I cannot stand ignorance in any form on this planet.

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

Ok, so hypothetically if facebook is not the one to blame for this, why call it "DRAW MUHAMMED"?

Was it Facebook who created the page or was it an independant user/group?

If it was a user, then Facebook could censor it if they want to.

It is a facebook sponsored competition and event, member have to submit the drawings directly to facebook and facebook determines the winners.

I am not even sure as to what the prize is, or even what the hell is the point of a competition like this is.

facebook definately needs to fire whoever came up with this Public Relations idea

If it was Facebook, that's despicable.

I totally agree

Frankly speaking I don't think just "banning" facebook.com is a good step, I mean what happened to facebook after getting banned from Pakistan? They don't care about it at all.

Blocking facebook is just like you are closing your eyes but the fact is still there, the competition is still there, the cartoonists are still drawing...

What should have been done by the Government is to fight with this issue "professionally". They should talk to the higher officials of facebook.com, the government officials of the country where facebook is hosted...etc. I think those steps could make better results.

I am 100000000000000000000% sure that after sometime ALL the cartoons that are going to be submitted on facebook today will be available EASILY on internet.

Originally Posted by Jani

What should have been done by the Government is to fight with this issue "professionally". They should talk to the higher officials of facebook.com, the government officials of the country where facebook is hosted...etc. I think those steps could make better results.

Certainly, the Pakistani government should have communicated with Facebook in a professional manner. That would have been the approach to take. However, because Facebook is a U.S. based business, contacting the U.S. government wouldn't do much good as it is illegal for a government official here to censor things.

Pakistan government has now blocked Youtube.com too

According to the news channels they have blocked more than 450 internet links where the cartoons can possibly be shown.

yeah as moslem i curse those facebook account

Originally Posted by Jani

Because of the competition running on facebook about "Draw Mohammad Day" Pakistani government has completely blocked the site facebook.com on internet and on mobile phone too.

This is being done as "protest" against such competitions or activities that are against Islam and/or Muslims.

I do not use facebook but after knowing about this issue I hate it.

It's really nice update you gave. I like twitter so much. It,s a challange every time when you Tweet you views in less then 140 words. We can not find no other useless thing in it. I have a greate followers in it.

ya.... i thought China is the only one closing everything... It seams that pakistan is following them..
sorry for those normal people who live in pakistan and have used fb.

after pakistan , whats next then. i hope not gonna happened in our country.

This is the problem with free media sooner or later it gets on someone's nerves

No Paypal, Youtube and Facebook in Pakistan will surely make a big impact to the people of Pakistan ...I do agree about the banning but they could have communicated with Facebook...Anyway our country's government is using Facebook and Twitter as mode of communication with its people