India: FB Draw Mohammed group 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 (few of which were pornographic) 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 heated up between Facebook (FB) and many Pakistanis who wanted the group ejected.

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. By May 19, Blackberry services were banned as well as they could be used to access Facebook. Pakistan took YouTube and even Wikipedia offline for some time. 

By May 20, it was clear that the anti Facebook campaign had achieved some success. Hackers had succeeded in bringing down the Group at least once. The American cartoonist, Molly Norris from Seattle, who had first raised such an idea, told a number of American media that she had nothing to do with the Facebook page and that her idea has been hijacked.  Molly even apologized to the Muslims.

The Administrators of the Facebook Group removed all the pornographic cartoons and urged their members: “Enjoy the rest of the day and draw Mohammed however you may like. We will of course encourage you to make a creative and humorous picture, instead of something hateful.”  Their hardcore stand has softened in the face of the strong protests emanating from the Islamic world.

The Facebook group ‘Everybody draw Mohammed Day on May 20’ had 110,000 members on May 20.  But late evening May 20, it went offline for more than 24 hours.  The first news reports suggested that Facebook had taken down the group.  But now it has been confirmed that hackers had bought down the group for more than one day.

What is the status now?  The Facebook group is accessible from USA and other western countries.  The Pakistan Government has blocked the entire Facebook till May 31.

What is intriguing is that this Facebook group now cannot be accessed from India as well.  You could see it from India till May 22.  There can be two possibilities – one is that Facebook has itself blocked it in countries like India that have a sizable Islamic population or the Indian Government has taken the initiative to avoid the public anger as what happened in Pakistan.  You can only access this group via proxy servers from India.

Whether Facebook believes it is allowing this group because it has to respect American freedom of speech laws, the fact is that it has violated Facebook’s Terms of Service. Quite separately to the issue of pornographic cartoons, the group’s administrators have told Radio Free Europe that they are using fake names to run this group.  Facebook does not allow people to use pseudonyms while creating accounts.  But it is turning a blind eye in this case.

Apart from Facebook and YouTube, Pakistan has also banned many links to Wikipedia and Twitter.  Pakistan has also banned hundreds of proxy servers which provide a back door entry to such banned sites.  This is the first time that hundreds of proxy servers have been banned in the sub continent.

(Techgoss had published the following on May 20, 2010)

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 hu