Facebook Is Blocked in Pakistan As It Indulges In A Controversial Campaign

After the outcry surrounding the Draw Mohammed Day Facebook page which is campaigning for the creation of mass cartoon caricatures of Prophet Muhammed [PBUH] on the 20th of May, today the Lahore High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the entire Facebook.com domain in Pakistan till 31st May.

Reports of blockage had been appearing around the country from the morning, initially the PTA had only blocked the URL of the offending Facebook page on a number of ISP, but by the late evening it had spread throughout the entire Facebook domain. Over 1.8 Million registered Facebook users from Pakistan will not be able to access their Facebook pages for the next few days.

The official PR notification as reproduced by Aamir Attaa at ProPakistani is as follows:

BLOCKAGE OF FACE BOOK WEBSITE DUE TO PUBLICATION OF PROFANE ANTI ISLAMIC CONTENT ON ITS WEBSITE.

ISLAMABAD: MAY 19, 2010

In compliance with the orders of Honourable Lahore High Court, Lahore, on the Writ Petition No.10392/10, dated the 19th May, 2010, the Ministry of Information Technology has issued a directive to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the ‘Face Book’ and all other internet links displaying sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet.

Ministry of IT has also directed the PTA to remain alert and watchful and block all such links displaying the profane caricatures immediately.

Ministry of IT has requested public at large to contact a dedicated Telephone No.0800-5505 and e-mail address: complaint@pta.gov.pk , to transmit necessary information, should anything to the effect of objectionable caricature get displayed/propagated at any website.

This open ended notification does little to signify that its on an entire domain and also lays no significant directive on the deadline of the blockage.

According to Foud Bajwa, who writes on Internet governance in Pakistan:

13.48% of Pakistani Internet Users will not be able to access Facebook.com starting at 12am tonight on 20th of May 2010.

Adil Najam at Pakistaniat shares a very valid and compelling argument quite literally blaming the Muslim community to have brought attention to the devious campaign designer in helping him achieve his goal.

I am offended by the idea that page purports and the goals it seeks to achieve. So, why should I dignify it by a visit? Why should I publicize it? Why should I give it the attention it was created to seek. Yet, all of us (now me included, which is why writing this is uncomfortable) are doing exactly that. And that is what pains me.

They simply could not have done this without us. The only people who have turned this from nothingness into a huge issue is us. I am sure that those who set up the page are jumping up and down and thanking us for making their page such a huge success! And that is what pains me.

Rumaisa Mohani conversely suggests to condemn this issue:

We have to decide now that “Do we respect ourselves, as mentioned in the words of Iqbal”? …. Because if we don’t , then we will have to accept what others say about us and do to us.  The pictures, cartoons and insulting remarks are increasing day by day , only because we are getting used to them…. and that is where lurks the real danger !!!

An immediate action can be condemning any such hurtful act, which is against our religious beliefs peacefully. We can give them an impression that nobody believes them and make them believe that they are wasting their time and effort to berate us… show out self-respect ! But, we need to do this  as a unified force. We should neither deviate from our focus (i.e.,condemning them) nor getting into petty issues (i.e., our own lacking)… because this is what they want us to indulge in.

Tehseen Bajwa at Techie Buzz shares his frustration that Facebook did not block the page:

Interestingly, the group inviting people to draw cartoons only has 42,000 members while the group that is asking Facebook to take action against this has 58,000 members. This however, has failed to get Facebook’s attention. After lots of protests and boycott-Facebook campaigns online, people also gathered on the streets of Pakistan to push Facebook for an action. When disappointed, users appealed the Government to intervene and as a result the ban was issued.

Sardar Mohkim Khan writes to say that the facebook page must be banned:

I think Mark Zuckerburg should take notice and give his social network’s Terms of Use a good read. Once done, he must then remove this page or simply let all hate groups flourish, I mean you have to be just and not be biased. Again religion is not the major reason, simply put the issue is with how Facebook has ignored its own rules and making people hate it more.

Ayesha comments:

by banning Facebook we are giving them financial loss and then they will remove all the nonsense, but what about the real culprits? you think they will stop? NO!, they will definitely find some other platform to harass us

Waqas Kamran at CooL Yar Forums says

We should stop using Facebook until they realize and respect Muslims and till privacy concerns are solved. We should use our own websites and support Muslims in anyway.

Meanwhile I wrote on my own blog at Teeth Maestro:

It does little to solve the problem, we as peaceful Pakistanis were lobbying to force Facebook to block the groups activities, our outreach was peaceful and with a definite commitment we had condemned this issue to such a strong degree that we might have possibly been on the verge of a break through, to be honest no one from the Muslim world was so emotionally charged lobbying against this group as we were here in Pakistan, now they have a free reign to celebrate the Draw Mohammed Day. to have won, while our government simply forced us to keep our eye closed.

ProPakistani's stance on this issue is:

We are Boycotting the Facebook on May 20th, 2010 and we will abandon all our activities on Facebook ever after. We have this stance because:

  • Staying on Facebook for reporting the bad URLs is pointless, as Facebook has made its mind to not to listen you
  • ProPakistani (not saying about you) can’t preach at a platform where people are abusing and using indecent language

34 comments

  • Thank ALLAH that Pakistan blocked/banned ‘Facebook’ & ‘YouTube’. Other MUSLIM countries should also perform the same act in this situation.
    We MUSLIMS don’t want anything which is against all religions.
    The ‘BAN’/’BLOCK’/’BOYCOTT’ will Insha’ALLAH give a huge financial loss to the ‘FACEBOOK’ & ‘YOUTUBE’.

    I’m a user of ‘Facebook’ since 2007, but now I’m thinking to shut down my profile. Also I’m using ‘YouTube’ but after this action against our ISLAM, we will give them a huge ‘Reaction. Because “Every Action has equal & opposite Reaction”.

    We are not afraid of anyone else accept ALLAH. We’ve our rights, if anyone will try to break them, then the ‘one’ will be punished.

    I’m 18 year old and all my colleagues, friends, family members, Pakistan and the Muslim countries don’t want to use these websites anymore.

    Insha’ALLAH we will develop our own ‘Social Network for MUSLIMS’.

    If they will not stop today then they will be treated very badly. (The REACTION is near). Beware!!!

  • Zahid

    Me and my friend deleted our accounts from the FaceBook and this is the real way to protest against facebook … Financial loss is the lesson which will teach them to respect others religions and belief…

  • suleri

    i think the name should be changed now to BANBOOK…

  • Kashif Jahangir

    This is the first time Pakistani community has taken a right step forward. Now we shuold learn to respect our selves, Islam and Pakistn as well. And tell the whole world we now no longer remain quite on any thing done against our beloved Holy Prophet (PBUH), Islam or any relegious personalities or even against Pakistan.

  • Safi Ullah Marwat

    I am sorry on the Lame thoughts of those who are against ban.. if it is stone age to ban face book or youtube, then why hundrads of our Pakistani Universities have banned it for years ago????????????????????????????????
    government have just banned it yesterday, but Universities have banned it years ago. so you should raise this point at that time. your writing depicts your affiliation with crystal clear cause. but at least we can not allow you to show fabricated fundations of Pakistan….
    I also want to tell those who consider the step towards caves, do you think facebook is the technology, must be adopted by each human being????
    i think world was more safer before facebook birth..
    plz mind the CURRENT situation…

  • Jameel Ahmad

    Facebook working for an agenda,,, facebook working for agencies, data provision, if u read facebook terms and condition, you will know, your all data, you deleted or present is facebook property and they can use it,, facebook support the fake groups to support ideas,, I hate it, plezzzzzzzzz value your time and avoid using facebook

  • I am a Pakistani and a Facebook addict! I live to play games like FarmVille and Treasure Isle.
    I am all for freedom of speech, etc but all the same I support the ban on Facebook in Pakistan over
    this issue and i would also encourage other Muslim countries to do the same. We respect our Prophet
    a lot and although we cannot expect the same from the rest of the world or even expect them to understand
    where we are coming from, we do need to show them that disrespect like this will not be tolerated.
    This applies not only to depictions of Prophet Muhammad but also of Prophet Moses, Jesus, Abraham, etc.
    We respect, love and revere all the Prophets and we do not appreciate any of them being ridiculed in
    the name of freedom of speech! I hope Facebook faces severe losses as a result of this ban and learns a
    lesson! It is wrong to offend and ridicule other religions in the name of free speech. We probably respect
    Prophet Jesus more than the Christians themselves, if you can’t do that for Prophet Muhammad then at least
    don’t be disrespectful. I don’t think that is asking for too much!

  • pakistani gov has done a great job. now we all pakistani’s should have to insist Gov to bane this site permanently .

  • Kamran

    I thing thats the very good and bold step taken by our government. and i thing Pakistani Government as well as other Islamic countries should block all other prone sites which destroys the future of our Youth.

  • AAQIB IQBAL QURESHI

    What i think what v(PAKISTAN) have done to this matter it looks so nice for the current situation, but please be ready for the future. We must be united as a muslim ummah, when we do this no body can even think about to do any thing wrong against ISLAM and our beloved PROPHET HAZRAT MUHAMMAD(PBUH). First we (all) must think where we are wrong. Think about it

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