Pakistan Lifts Ban After Facebook Deletes Offending Page

crimeandpunishment writes "Facebook is back in Pakistan today. A day after Bangladesh banned the social networking site, the Pakistani government lifted its ban after officials from Facebook apologized for the 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day' page and removed it from the site. The page caused outrage and protests among Pakistan's Muslim population, and led to the ban two weeks ago. A spokesman for Pakistan's office of information technology said Facebook assured the government 'nothing of this sort will happen in the future.'"

Comments

Why, why, why?

[DogDude]

Why do all of you Facebook bitches still use it? It's like Facebook is an abusive husband, and y'all just keep going back again and again.

What are the rules?

[jmichaelg]

First Facebook redefines its privacy policies making private data public.

Now it yanks a political expression page because the page offends another group.

One might be inclined to think Facebook Zucks.

I'm a Muslim...

[Iftekhar25]

And even if I am offended (which I reserve the right to be), I don't think any of this should be happening (i.e., censorship). There has been defamatory material on the prophet for centuries, and in fact were around even during his time. This is nothing new; anyone as prominent as him had to have grown pretty thick skin to get anything done.

His followers 14 centuries on, however, can't seem to follow in his footsteps even half as much as they claim they do.

Every time something like this comes up, I try to dig a hole and disappear best I can. Yet another dysfunctional government like Bangladesh or Pakistan come up with a way to do their magical rabble-rousing and distract from the real issues at hand: economic development, education, and healthcare. All of which they are failing *miserably* at.

This is all *political*. Almost all Muslims (both in the "West" and in the "East") have no beef with anyone or anything, and just want to go ahead living their lives. These idiots in government, who can't even ensure their citizens get basic utilities like garbage collection and electricity, are spending their energy on some drawings, which is perverse on multiple levels.

The minority here is basically speaking for the majority. And honestly... the majority (like me) are looking to dig their own holes as well. We don't want to stick our heads out because we don't want the confrontation. This isn't something we particularly care about. I honest to goodness don't want to argue about the merits and demerits of my faith with some of the slashdotters on here, who are convinced that Muslims "don't belong."

But someone's gotta say it. Most of us are not like this. Most of us just want to get on with our lives. Please don't let the vocal minority dominate the debate. This is political distraction tactics and has little or nothing to do with free speech, Facebook, or the prophet.

Re:Score

[icebraining]

Why the cheap shot against the "left"? You could say I'm a "leftie" (especially by US standards), and I'm pissed off by this.

Re:Face palm

[Omestes]

Yes, the US blocks sites it finds objectionable. They tend to be the kind that Americans would make death threats about.

Could you cite this? I don't recall the US blocking any sites on a national level. I'm not saying that they haven't, but I have seen no evidence for it.

Re:pathetic

[ultranova]

This attitude utterly disgusts me. You people are pathetic. "Not drawing pictures of Mohammed" (PBUH) takes away precisely one "right" of yours, the right to be an idiot with no sense of tact or respect.

Not being allowed to draw pictures of Mohammed takes away the right to say anything anyone might find offensive - unless, of course, you are suggesting that Muslims should have special privileges in this regard?

If you've got a really good reason to draw a picture of the prophet, other than something along the lines of "I have a misguided idea of what free speech means, and I want to be offensive for a laugh" then I'd love to hear it.

Free speech means that neither I nor anyone else need to justify us drawing pictures of Muhammed, nor any other expression, to you or anyone else. That is what "freedom" means: I can do what I want, not what you graciously allow me to.

I'm a British atheist. What say I go to Alabama, defecate on a bible, wrap it in the US flag and burn the bundle. That's free speech isn't it? That's me exercising the right of a person living in the US isn't it?

No, it's me being an offensive dick for the sake of it. I'd get lynched, and rightly so. Grow up, the lot of you.

No, you wouldn't be lynched. You would be told you are an offensive dick, and possibly sued if you did this in public for the defecating in public part. If some mentally disturbed individuals were to take violent action against you, they would then face charges for their criminal behavior.

It is you who needs to grow up, and realize that murdering someone because he offends you is not acceptable.