Facebook has had some bad press lately.
The popular social networking site got in trouble in recent months for the ever-more-cavalier way it treats users’ privacy. People complain that their data has been unilaterally exposed in ways they never expected when they first signed up for the service, and that privacy settings have devolved into a confusing, hard-to-tweak labyrinth.
Facebook seems to be adjusting its privacy practices in response to the bad publicity. But there’s another lamentable Facebook practice that has, unfortunately, received less sustained attention: Its willingness to shut down a user’s Facebook page solely because somebody else is offended by the viewpoint expressed on that page.
The “somebody else,” in the case I’m referring to, is the government of Pakistan, which banned Facebook because of a page encouraging people to display images of the prophet Muhammad in protest of threats of violence against the show South Park, which had made fun of making threats against people who display images of Muhammad.
“In response to our protest, Facebook has tendered their apology and informed us that all the sacrilegious material has been removed from the URL,” gloated Najibullah Malik, who represents Pakistan’s Orwellian “information technology ministry.”
It’s dangerous to cave in to demands for censorship. The folks at Facebook were faced with the loss of a large market, but they should have let the anti-censorship page remain published and let Facebook users in Pakistan pressure their government to lift the ban.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Facebook’s Secret Shame”
Much safe to harrass Christians, what with the cheek thing. Those Muslim folks are just plain nasty when they’re p‑oed.
I am so tired of America giving in to all the crackpot’s in creation. It all started with Mrs O’Hare and her Godless life. How can we expect to stay a Christian country if all we do is back down at the slightest remark of dislike. We have said for years, walk softly but carry a big stick, and we have now added a bit to that, “But don’t ever dare to use it”. It is time to use the stick, the tank, the gun or whatever it takes to make everyone in the world understand, we are a Christian country and if you don’t like it, then you can kiss my butt and just leave, go back where you came from and fight for your own piece of land, your own freedom. Don’t stand on my front door step screaming epithets at me because I will not open my door to you. Young men and women of just about every generation for 300 years have fought and died for this country, we do not take that lightly.We go about our daily business, but there is an awfull anger brewing in Americans here at home and one of these days it will just burst out, then look out, you had better book you flight now because there may not be any when you decide you have worn out your welcome.
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