Pakistan tech protests Facebook ban
By Sandhya

On May 18, 2010, I had reported on how a Facebook group ‘Everybody draw Mohammed Day on May 20’ had extremely graphic images and cartoons which were bound to hurt the sensibilities of many in the Islamic world.  Despite many requests, Facebook did not take down this group saying its platform allows such freedom of speech about every religion.  Things were heating up.

On May 18, I had speculated on how long it would take for mainstream media to pick up the story and force the Pakistani and other Islamic Governments into action.  On May 19, the Lahore High Court ordered a ban on Facebook till May 31, 2010.

It soon became clear that the Pakistan Government had even requested a total ban on Blackberry services as its users go through servers based overseas and so had access to Facebook.

Pakistan, like India, has a number of intellectuals who have a proud record of speaking their mind on what they believe is in public interest.  And so started the debate – how do we balance the deep religious feelings in the sub-continent with modern technologies like Facebook and Twitter which permit anyone to say anything?  If there was a similar Facebook group about Hindu gods, millions of Indians would protest as well.  For most Indians and Pakistani’s such freedom of speech stops at the entry gates of our temples and mosques.

Even as most of Pakistan is hailing the ban on Facebook, a number of intellectuals disagree and feel that it would be better to engage Facebook and explain that such Groups hurt millions of people all over the world

Techgoss has collated the views of some Pakistani intellectuals from their blogs and websites.

Faisal Qureshi trained to be an engineer but is now one of the most respected voices in the Pakistani tech and media worlds.  Apart from heading a number of software companies, he is also a successful television host.  Faisal blogged:

“
It’s like becoming fat to get even with the man who dumped you for a thin girl

Have we ever thought that by predicting in this most predictable fashion we do exactly as they want us to?

Just to “scare” Facebook off we’ve actually shut ourselves in. And now we’ve even taken down the whole blackberry service in the country.

Do we have any idea how this would effect and harm our businesses? Especially the I.T. industry which supports its services and has come to rely on blackberries for it? I mean who the heck would have imagined we could shoot ourselves in the foot in 2010?

There is no limit to how primitive we can get.

Long live democracy. The people have spoken.
“

Jehan Ara is one of the most high profile figures in the Pakistan technology sector.  Jehan was even invited by NASSCOM to attend its leadership summit in Mumbai in Feb, 2010.  Jehan Ara wrote:

“
People certainly know how to push our buttons and get us to react in a way that is detrimental to ourselves. Yet again history is repeating itself. Someone puts up a page on Facebook announcing a competition of caricatures of the Prophet, and what do we do? Do we speak up against it in a civilized fashion like:

- Writing blog posts and opinion pieces in mainstream media
- Signing a petition
- Pursuing Facebook and asking them to take down the page because it is offensive
- Writing to our parliamentarians and asking that the government officially protest
- Protesting using all sorts of media

No of course not (well some of us do, but most of us don’t). Why would we do something as sensible as that, and have our voices heard? Instead we do what people have come to expect from us. We stifle our own voices by banning a social networking site where 2.5 million Pakistani could have been heard. We hide our head in the sand like ostriches. We react like little children do – closing our eyes and pretending that if we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
“

Pakistani intellectual Dr. Awab Alvi was invited as a guest at the TED conference held at the Infosys campus in Nov, 2009.  Dr. Alvi held a press conference urging defenders of internet freedoms to protest the Pakistani Government ban on Facebook.  While Dr. Alvi criticized every Facebook group that incites violence and hatred,  he felt that banning Facebook harms 2 million Pakistani’s who use it to stay in touch with family and conduct business.  Dr. Alvi felt Governments should not have the power to block access to information.

(Techgoss had published the following on May 19, 2010)

Pakistan bans Facebook
By Sandhya

On May 18, 2010, I had reported on how a Facebook group ‘Everybody draw Mohammed Day on May 20’ had extremely graphic images and cartoons which were bound to hurt the sensibilities of the Islamic world.  In the article (republished below), I had speculated how long would it take for mainstream media to pick up the story and force Governments into action.

It took the Pakistani Government and judiciary only 24 hours to make their move.  Propakistani.pk is reporting that the Lahore High Court has ordered the Pakistani Government to block Facebook till May 31, 2010.

The Pakistani Government has asked its nodal Telecom body PTA to block Facebook till the end of the month.  Pakistani ISP have already implemented the Government’s directives.

This will not end here.  I feel that if Facebook does not remove the group, it risks a boycott by many in the Islamic world.

(Techgoss had published the following on May 18, 2010)

Facebook anti Islam group
By Sandhya

Like many Indians, while growing up my role models and heroes followed different religions and faiths but respected each others.  One of India’s unique strengths lies in the fact that it has offered a home, sanctuary and respect to every religion.  And we are stronger because of it.

For many days now, I have been anxiously watching a Facebook group ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day on May 20’.  Its administrators claim they started this Facebook group “as a snarky response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" Comedy Central about an episode of South Park showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear suit. One Seattle cartoonist, who calls laughter her form of "prayer," is asking artists all over the world to create depictions of Mohammed on May 20, then submit the images to a Facebook page she set up.”

While this Facebook group says it is “not trying to slander the average Muslim’ some of the cartoons and images are bound to raise heated emotions and anger. Some of the images are extremely graphic. If such a site existed in India and aggressively satirized any religion practiced in our country, it would be banned the same day.

Even as the mainstream media ignored this Facebook Group, it has grown to more than 35,000 members.  Despite lobbying by many people, Facebook continues to host this group.

Yesterday, one of Pakistan’s most read technology blog Propakistani picked up the story and has linked to the Facebook group as well.  Now that the issue has been picked up popular online tech media, it may be picked up by mainstream media as well. A few readers of the Pakistani blog have even urged hackers to bring down this Facebook group.  There is talk of Muslims boycotting Facebook.

Whichever way you look at this, it is not going to end well. More enemies will be made and someone may even get hurt.