20th May, 2010 was unofficially announced as the ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ on Facebook. As it gained popularity, obviously, all of the Muslim community objected to it in two ways.
One group very strongly and publicly condemned the event by making regular wall posts and creating/joining/liking pages and groups against it. The other group chose a more civil way of dealing with the matter by joining and conversing with the admins and the rest. As the first group unintentionally promoted the event page, it gained fantastic popularity and the number of people protesting against it and joining it to stop them increased proportionally.
As Facebook is soon becoming a topic of various conversations in our real lives, this matter was brought offline into the courts of Pakistan. Lahore High Court was the first to act against it by sentencing the online social network to be banned until 31st May 2010. Pakistan Telecommunication Authorities readily obliged. Furthermore, other government bodies took interest in the matter by changing the end date to indefinite.
Along with Facebook, YouTube also got the same treatment after a user uploaded a blasphemous video and soon after the two, 998 sites followed. Banning the Pakistani internet users to a something that had became a part of their life – a social network, THE video sharing network and everything that came anywhere near the two.
Of course, every action has an equal and opposite reaction but is it the right reaction?
The bans were issued to force the websites to remove the controversial materials. But what difference banning them in Pakistan will make? A couple of days after the ban was placed, I received a message telling me that due to the ban Facebook has suffered a $2 billion loss. Back when the Danish newspaper published the caricatures, a message told me a similar story about Denmark.
Surprisingly, the media of the world did not even care to talk about it. After all, $2 billion is a big amount. If I had $2 billion, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be on the moon! Screw Earth!
I think it is very rational of me to conclude that no such thing actually happened. Since I’m also working online, I thought somebody is going in a loss though but not Facebook. Let me break it down for you:
Have you noticed that recently, our local products started to advertise on Facebook and YouTube. Ever noticed reading ‘Mobilink Indigo’ or ‘Ufone’ on either of the sites? Ever noticed artists and designers promoting themselves with an ad for their page? We even put a Soccerlens ad once.
They do not advertise for free. Most of us have not even been to that side of either YouTube or Facebook. The people actually losing the money here are our own people. They have paid them to display their ad only in Pakistan and Pakistan can’t access those sites! How convenient!
God forbid, I do not dare to say there should have been no action on this evil event. Action should have taken by our state. This should be dealt with on a state level. I know, looking at the “antics” of our leaders – and not just current leaders – it seems like a joke. But that is the appropriate reaction.
Facebook will not remove anything within their rules and regulations unless they have been contacted by their state. If you own a world famous website and a group of people from a small, far off country asks you to take something off because they don’t like it. Would you remove it? Would you care? Specially if you’ve been brainwashed to believing that you have to be a crazy suicide bomber to be a Muslim.
I know these facts are too harsh and too tough to swallow but unless we recognize them, we will not wake up. The world has tried to wake you up by killing us in Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iraq. Didn’t seem to do much. There has been an uprising but it just hasn’t been strong enough to overturn our own corrupt governments and cause a revolution throughout the Muslim world.
Anyways, since a step has been taken already. State should get involved now and get the page taken down and remove the ban instantly. This should’ve been done a week ago though.