Pakistanis leave local Facebook
By Sandhya

On May 18,  I had reported on how a Facebook (FB) group ‘Everybody draw Mohammed Day on May 20’ had extremely graphic images and cartoons (few of which were pornographic) and 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. 

After the mainstream media picked up the story, a Pakistani court ordered Facebook (FB) banned in that country till May 31, 2010.  The Indian Government had secret talks with Facebook, and this group was blocked in India as well.

Facebook initially insisted that it allowed such freedom of speech, but after being hacked and facing growing protests from the Islamic world, Facebook has promised it would not allow such groups in the future. 

In the wake of this Facebook controversy in Pakistan, Lahore based Global IT Vision launched Millatfacebook so that Muslims could have a social networking website free of such attacks on their religious beliefs. Since their launch in June, 2010, they have been covered by Indian media including Times of India, Hindustan Times and NDTV. By June, 2010, Millatfacebook was claiming 333,000 members mainly from Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and even India.

In June, 2010, Millatfacebook accused Facebook, CIA and even Yahoo of trying to sabotage it.

So, how is Millatfacebook doing since its launch four months ago?  Not too well! If Alexa is to be believed, there has been a 56 percent drop in users in the last 3 months.  It seems that when the controversy died down in Pakistan, most returned to the American Facebook.  No Indian or Pakistani social networking site has the resources to compete with an international giant like Facebook especially when most locals prefer the American version.