facebook blocked
Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Pakistan, Syria, China, Vietnam, and Iran. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property. The site has also been involved in controversy over the sale of fans and friends.
[ad code=1 align=center]
China’s Facebook Status: Blocked
In China, Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots Huanqi.com had asserted that “Xinjiang Independence” activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network. Some Chinese users also believed that Facebook will not succeed in China, after Google’s departure. A translitered namesake of Facebook (非死不可 fēisǐbùkě, literally “will definitely die”) is popular among Chinese media.
The Chinese government is not shy about censoring the internet. As tension rose over Tibet before the 2008 Olympics, sites like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and even Wikipedia found themselves blocked. After the Olympic frenzy, the government seemed to relax and many sites become accessible again. Youtube and most major blog sites, however, were re-blocked this spring when a video of a Buddhist monk being beaten surfaced.
Now, in light of the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which the media is calling the next Tiananmen, or the Tibet of 2009, the government is refocusing on internet censorship. The Latest casualty? Facebook. When you try to access Facebook in China, an error message appears saying “Network Timeout.” This means that Chinese residents are without Youtube, Twitter, and other sites where content is predominantly user generated. Interestingly, the Chinese equivalent of many of these sites (i.e., Youku, the Chinese version of Youtube or Xiaonei, the version of Facebook) remain available. One possible explanation for the choice to block major foreign sites and not their domestic equivalents is that the Chinese government might be more concerned about international criticism than internal tension.
Criticism of Facebook
[ad code=4 align=center]
Facebook’s growth as an Internet social networking site has met criticism on a range of issues, especially the privacy of their users, child safety, the use of advertising scripts, data mining, and the inability to terminate accounts without first manually deleting all the content. Many companies removed their adverts from the site in 2008 because they were being displayed on the pages of controversial individuals and groups. The actual content of user’s pages, groups and forums has been criticised for promoting controversial topics such as pro-anorexia and holocaust denial. There have been several issues with censorship, both on and off the site. The changes made by Facebook have been criticised, in particular the new format launched in 2008 and the changes in Facebook’s Terms of Use which removed the clause detailing automatic expiry of deleted content. Facebook has also been successfully sued several times for violation of intellectual property rights
Facebook Blocked in Pakistan
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
In 2010, an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” page on Facebook prompted the Islamic Lawyers Forum to file a petition with Pakistan’s Lahore High Court. On May 18, 2010, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block access to Facebook until May 31. “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” had provoked street demonstrations in Pakistan, visual depictions of Mohammed being considered blasphemous by many Muslims.
A spokesman said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority would move to implement the ban once the order has been issued by the Ministry of Information and Technology. ‘We will implement the order as soon as we get the instructions,’ Khurram Mehran told AFP. ‘We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to Internet service providers yesterday,’ he said.
‘We moved the petition in the wake of widespread resentment in the Muslim community against the Facebook contest,’ lawyer Rai Bashir told AFP. The petition also called on the government to lodge a strong protest with the owners of Facebook, he added. Mr Bashir said a PTA official told the judge his organisation had blocked the page, but the court ordered a total ban on the site. About 200 people demonstrated outside court in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan, carrying banners condemning Facebook and praising the Prophet Mohammed. Protests are now being done in Pakistan on a larger scale after the ban and widespread news of the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. Wikipedia’s “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”‘s URL was also blocked in Pakistan on May 21, 2010 on containing this type of objectional content. However this ban is lifted on 31 May after authorities assure Lahore High Court that facebook will refrain from these activities in future.
Government censorship
Because of the open nature of Facebook, several countries have banned access to it including Syria, China, Iran, and Vietnam.
Facebook blocked in Africa and Middle East
The Syrian government cited the ban was on the premise that the website promoted attacks on authorities. The government also feared Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks on Facebook. Facebook was also used by Syrian citizens to criticize the government, and public criticism of the Syrian government is punishable by imprisonment.
On February 5, 2008, Fouad Mourtada, a citizen of Morocco, was arrested for the alleged creation of a faked Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco.
During the 2009 election in Iran, the website was banned because of fears that opposition movements were being organized on the website. Access has since been reinstated.
Facebook blocked Vietnam
In Vietnam, an unauthenticated document supposedly issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security dating August 27, 2009 instructing ISPs to block Facebook sparked shutdown fears. Access to Facebook became intermittent in mid-November and major ISPs were swamped by complaints. Some technicians confirmed being ordered by the government to block access to Facebook while government officials denied it.
Communist regimes and dictators really do not like Facebook. We’ve written about China blocking Facebook on an ongoing basis, and now Vietnam is possibly blocking the site as well. According to Ben Stockton of AP, “Over the last week, access to Facebook has been intermittent in the country, whose government tightly controls the flow of information.” We’ve seen access to Facebook limited before but this is the first time we’ve heard of issues in Vietnam.
While we’ve reached out to Facebook, we’ve yet to hear back from the company. Vietnam currently has approximately 1 million users according to Facebook’s own advertising estimates. The primary source of concerns about Facebook being shut down, is “an unauthenticated document circulating on the internet—which says it was issued by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security”. The document, “instructs Internet service providers to block Facebook”.
While Facebook has been seen by some as a tool for spreading democracy around the world, the biggest hurdle to doing so is clearly regimes who decide to block the site all together. Whether it’s Iran, Vietnam, China, or other countries, censoring the internet is critical to the survival of oppressive regimes. For the time being we’ll have to wait and see how this story evolves, but it appears that Facebook may have to deal with yet another country blocking access to the rapidly expanding site.
Organizations blocking access
Ontario government employees, Federal public servants, MPPs, and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to Facebook on government computers in May 2007. When the employees tried to access Facebook, a warning message “The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes”. This warning also appears when employees try to access YouTube, MySpace, gambling or pornographic websites. However, innovative employees have found ways around such protocols, and many claim to use the site for political or work-related purposes.
A number of local governments including those in the UK and Finland imposed restrictions on the use of Facebook in the workplace due to the technical strain incurred. Other government-related agencies, such as the US Marine Corps have imposed similar restrictions
A number of hospitals in Finland have also restricted Facebook use citing privacy concerns
Schools blocking access in Facebook
The University of New Mexico (UNM) in October 2005 blocked access to Facebook from UNM campus computers and networks, citing unsolicited e-mails and a similar site called UNM Facebook. After a UNM user signed into Facebook from off campus, a message from Facebook said, “We are working with the UNM administration to lift the block and have explained that it was instituted based on erroneous information, but they have not yet committed to restore your access.” UNM, in a message to students who tried to access the site from the UNM network, wrote, “This site is temporarily unavailable while UNM and the site owners work out procedural issues. The site is in violation of UNM’s Acceptable Computer Use Policy for abusing computing resources (e.g., spamming, trademark infringement, etc). The site forces use of UNM credentials (e.g., NetID or email address) for non-UNM business.” However, after Facebook created an encrypted login and displayed a precautionary message not to use university passwords for access, UNM unblocked access the following spring semester.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on June 22, 2006, that Kent State University’s athletic director had planned to ban the use of Facebook by athletes and gave them until August 1 to delete their accounts.
On July 5, 2006, the Daily Kent Stater reported that the director reversed the decision after reviewing the privacy settings of Facebook.
Since it violates many school boards’ terms of use for the internet along with local and state laws, many school boards in North America, Europe and Oceania that run elementary through high schools have blocked access to Facebook. The Calgary Board of Education, and the Greater Essex County District School Board, school districts in Calgary, Alberta, and Essex County, Ontario Canada, block Facebook use through internet filters in some schools.
Closed social networks
Several web sites concerned with social networking
have criticized the lack of information that users get when they share data.
Advanced users can limit the amount of information anyone can access in their profiles, but Facebook promotes the sharing of personal information for marketing purposes, leading to the promotion of the service using personal data from users who are not fully aware of this. Furthermore, Facebook exposes personal data, without supporting open standards for data interchange. According to several communities and authors
closed social networking, on the other hand, promotes data retrieval from other people while not exposing one’s personal information.
Openbook was established in early 2010 both as a parody of Facebook and a critique of its changing privacy management protocols
Facebook blocked in Pakistan
A court in Pakistan has ordered the authorities temporarily to block the Facebook social networking site.
The order came when a petition was filed after the site held a competition featuring caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The petition, filed by a lawyers’ group called the Islamic Lawyers’ Movement, said the contest was “blasphemous”.
A message on the competition’s information page said it was not “trying to slander the average Muslim”.
“We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Muhammad depictions that we’re not afraid of them,” a statement on the “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day” said.
“They can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.”
The page in question contains caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity, as well as comments both critical and supportive of Islam.
‘Blasphemous’
Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked angry protests in Muslim countries – five people were killed in Pakistan.
| Facebook has more than 400 million users shari 25 billion things a month |
Already the Pakistani press has reported protests against Facebook on Wednesday by journalists outside parliament in Islamabad, while various Islamic parties are also reported to be organising demonstrations.
Correspondents say that the internet is uncensored in Pakistan but the government monitors content by routing all traffic through a central exchange.
Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court ordered the department of communications to block the website until 31 May, and to submit a written reply to the petition by that date.
An official told the court that parts of the website that were holding the competition had been blocked, reports the BBC Urdu service’s Abdul Haq in Lahore.
But the petitioner said a partial blockade of a website was not possible and that the entire link had to be blocked.
The lawyers’ group says Pakistan is an Islamic country and its laws do not allow activities that are “un-Islamic” or “blasphemous”.
The judge also directed Pakistan’s foreign ministry to raise the issue at international level.
In the past, Pakistan has often blocked access to pornographic sites and sites with anti-Islamic content.
It has deemed such material as offensive to the political and security establishment of the country, says the BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.
In 2007, the government banned the YouTube site, allegedly to block material offensive to the government of Pervez Musharraf.
The action led to widespread disruption of access to the site for several hours. The ban was later lifted.
Read a selection of comments from Pakistan:
I don’t think that the court has made the right decision. Now searching on Facebook, I don’t see any such group! I am not sure if the court was given the true story with proper proof, or if so, it should be made public too! Having said that, Facebook admins should make sure that such anti-Muslim zealots who plan to provoke such agitation should be banned and such utterly bizarre stuff shouldn’t even taken place in the name of any competition! It’s ridiculous.
Azeem, Lahore
I am a regular user of Facebook. The court has made the right decision. If this thing continues, the authorities should ban Facebook permanently. This is the first time after 9/11 that any institution in Pakistan has given a kind hearing to the voice of the public. Further, if these actions persist, the government should end friendly and diplomatic ties with any country that supports blasphemous acts like this.
Asad Fareed, Rawalpindi
No. It is a wrong decision. Ban does not do anything. Are you going to ban eveything on the internet that inflames someone’s sensibilities? Stupid! If someone is inflamed and feels hurt, then do not go to that website.
Aurangzeb Haneef, Karachi
Yes, I do use Facebook regulary. The court has certainly made the right decision and we strongly support it. People should respect each other’s beliefs and exhibit tolerance. We, as muslims, hold nothing dearer than our Holy Prophet and such a disrespectful, blasphemous act would not be ignored or tolerated!
Rabia Liaqut, Lahore
I feel that the court should not have blocked facebook and instead let Pakistani muslims use the website as a forum to protest what they felt was wrong and blasphemous. However, I do believe that Facebook should monitor content published on the website and control the formation of potentially volatile groups that could be offensive to certain religions. It is a commonly known fact that muslims feel strongly about pictorial depictions of prophet Mohammad and Allah (God) and, therefore, people should be respectful of that instead of trying to irk muslims and create controversies just to prove that ‘muslims’ in general are a fundamentalist and unreasonable people who do not believe in freedom of speech.
Ansareen, Karachi
It’s great action. Many Pakistanies have already left the site. We are happy because we love our Prophet Muhammad more than Facebook.
Aqeel Shuja, Sialkot
Related posts:
