One Facebook, Two Faces [One is Real Ugly]

Old Article but a very very realistic.

By Saad Mustafa Warraich, Karachi – Pakistan

I had been banned from Facebook and my account had been disabled a night before Facebook was banned in Pakistan. Before all this happened, I visited the blasphemous page “Draw Muhammad Day” and the content on the page hurt me badly.

Once again a certain group of westerners called it the “freedom of expression” and went on to show extremism – something they always verbally disassociate themselves from.

As a response to this lunacy, I thought it best to find out how they respond to others’ right of freedom of expression – I created an Adolf Hitler page right away and it read, “To all those who think they can ridicule Islam in the name of freedom of expression and yet punish those who speak of the genius of Hitler”.

The comment on the wall read, “Let’s hit them where it hurts them the most”. Further I added some photos of the Fuhrer, Nazi Party and the Italian Footballer Paolo Di Canio who was banned and fined by FIFA two years ago for performing the “controversial” Roman Salute which according to him gave him a sense of belonging to his people.

Within an hour tens of people joined the Hitler page which was named “H | T L E R”. The very next time I tried to log in I found out that my profile had been disabled for ‘violation of Facebook Regulations’.

Out of sight, but still in their minds

KARACHI: As the second wave of floods threaten Sindh, some solace can be drawn from the fact that relief efforts are being made across borders and oceans.

The Muslim Students Association at Columbia University, New York is part of this struggle to help those affected thousands of miles away. Even though school is closed, students rallied to raise $15,000 (nearly Rs1.2 million) from different fund-raising activities, including going door-to-door, in Muslim communities, mosques and churches in New York city.

“This money will be donated to the great work being done by the Rural Support Programme and the Armed Forces of Pakistan, while the goods we have received will be air shipped,” Taimur T Malik, president of the Columbia Muslim Students Association told The Express Tribune via email.

Across the ocean, in London, four people, Adil, Fatima, Naz and Hammad, decided that they would hit 10 tube stations for donations and collections on Aug 19 at 8:00 am and Aug 20 the same time. The effort, aptly named ‘Tube Collections for the Pakistan floods’, will ultimately benefit the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) Relief Fund. They can be contacted on facebook or at allforpakistan@gmail.com. Meanwhile on the home front, Iqra University (IU) is also stepping up its game. University management held a meeting with students to discuss relief efforts for people across the province. “We need to play our part as students,” said IU Registrar Akif Hasan. “We have a platform from where we can gather and make efforts to help those in distress.”

15 Reasons Not To Use Social Media For Your Business

The author has a great reason why his 15 reasons are the worst ones for using social media for your business. This is a recommended read.

The 15 Worst Reasons to Use Social Media For Your Business

by Eric Fulwiler

I am a heavy supporter of social media as a valuable business tool, but only when it is used for the right reasons, and in the right way. Sometimes it’s easy to convince yourself that your reason for using social media for your business is right when it’s actually wrong. So, here it is, in black and white, the 15 worst reasons to use social media for business.

15. Because it’s free to sign up

14. Because you like the idea of going viral

13. Because you heard the buzz about the South by Southwest conference

12. Because you have friends who are successful blogger

11. Because you can automate many social network feeds

10. Because the 400 million people on Facebook are a new population to advertise to

Order to block nine websites with blasphemous material

LAHORE: A Pakistani court has ordered the authorities to block access to nine websites including Google, Yahoo and YouTube for allegedly offending Muslims with blasphemous material.Judge Mazhar Iqbal ordered Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority to block the websites due to “material against the fundamental principals of Islam and its preaching,” according to a copy of the judgement obtained by AFP.

Pakistan shut off Facebook for nearly two weeks last month in a storm of controversy about a competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad and has restricted access to hundreds of online links because of blasphemy.

Iqbal announced a short version of the order in the eastern city of Bahawalpur on Tuesday and released a written detailed order on Wednesday, lawyer Latifur Rehman who brought the petition for the ban, told AFP.

Facebook fiasco

Denying that the Holocaust took place is actually illegal in many parts of Europe. If they pride themselves on the freedom of speech why curtail it in this particular instance and criminalise it? With the problems Muslims have with Facebook these days, it’s quite important to understand this. For starters, neo-Nazis and anti-Semitic groups used free speech as a mask to disguise their hatred by questioning historical accuracy of the Holocaust taking place at all, in effect claiming a conspiracy of historical fabrication by Jews for their own benefit.

On the surface, what may seem like an academic position (Holocaust denial) is often simply the cloak of those who preach hate. In this respect, Holocaust denial and the effort to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) are quite similar. Those who seek the right to express their freedom

Facebook page that stirred rage in Pakistan removed

A Facebook page that fueled rage and protest in Pakistan was gone from the popular online social networking service on Friday.

The Facebook user that organised an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” competition to promote “freedom of expression” evidently took down the page along with a separate blog about the campaign.

“Facebook has not taken any action on this page,” the California-based social networking titan said after reporting the page was gone.

LHC lifts ban on Facebook

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) lifted the ban on social networking website Facebook on Monday.

During today’s proceedings, the court demanded gaurantees that such content will not be accessible to users in Pakistan. The court observed that the act would be treated as contempt of court if it is repeated again.

Meanwhile, deputy attorney general and PTA representative assured the court it would not happen again.

Bangladesh ‘blocks Facebook’ over political cartoons

Bangladesh has blocked access to Facebook after satirical images of the prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and the country’s leaders were uploaded, say reports.

One man has been arrested and charged with “spreading malice and insulting the country’s leaders” with the images, an official told the AFP news agency.

Officials said the ban was temporary and access to the site would be restored once the images were removed.

It comes after Pakistan invoked a similar ban over “blasphemous content”.

A spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told AFP Facebook had “hurt the religious sentiments of the country’s majority Muslim population” by carrying “offensive images” of Mohammed (P.B.U.H).

Normality, Pakistani-style

Facebook banned; Sindh and the centre fighting over VAT implementation; scorching summer creating electricity and water shortages; cricket in turmoil, again — give it to me, I’ll take it all.

If the alternative is some kind of national crisis that can potentially derail the democratic project, I’ll take the mini crises.

And that’s all we look set for in the weeks ahead. El Presidente is in a relaxed mood, talking privately about completing his term, happy in the knowledge that his foreign benefactors continue to support him. The army doesn’t like him, but it’s still willing to tolerate him given the paucity of alternatives.

Pakistan’s list of blocked websites swells

KARACHI: A list of over 370 websites that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has asked ISPs to block was obtained by The Express Tribune, while PTA spokesperson Khurram Mehran has confirmed that the total number of blocked sites has reached 1,000.

As of Friday, the list contains addresses of 242 proxy servers used to bypass banned websites, as well as at least two Twitter accounts, several news stories (including those published by Fox News and Washington Post) and multiple blogs (hosted by Blogger and WordPress), nine Wikipedia pages and 15 Google Image results. Additionally, some Flickr accounts are also included in the list.