ONE Facebook, TWO Faces!

One Facebook, Two Faces [One is Real Ugly]

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’.
Facebook’s reply for my inquiry was as following (also shown in above
screenshot):

Hi Saad,
After reviewing your situation, we have determined that your violated
our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. One of Facebook’s main
priorities is the comfort and safety of our users.

We do not tolerate hate speech. Targeting people based on their race,
ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual
orientation, disability, or disease is a serious violation of our
standards and has resulted in the permanent loss of your account.

We will not be able to reactivate your account for any reason.  This
decision is final.

Kimmie
User Operations,
Facebook

Now how is it that Hitler is termed as the most evil person in the
history of mankind while those that bomb Muslims, commit heinous
crimes in their countries, ridicule their Prophet and Quran and as a
result hurt the sentiments of 1.2 billion Muslims are hailed as
heroes? And I wonder why the victims of Holocaust are more important
than victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Despite the protest of a large number of Muslims, Facebook has not
removed the blasphemous page from the website.
According the statement issued by Facebook their policy is to withhold
such content in countries where it is controversial. The statement
specifically says that we do not remove Nazi content from Facebook
because it is illegal only in a few countries. As two-faced statements
go, this one takes the prize. Perhaps before issuing the statement the
Facebook did not realise that words like “Adolf Hitler”, “Sieg Heil”
and “Nazi” are not allowed to be used on Facebook to create new pages.

And if all this and the removal of Hitler page and the permanent
deactivation of my profile isn’t enough, here is a testament to
Facebook’s vile hypocrisy. The statement issued by Facebook on 20 May
says, “We strongly believe that Facebook users have the freedom to
express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content,
groups or pages that speak out against countries, religions, political
entities, or ideas.”

While, in another instance, Facebook replied me in entirely different
way. Excerpt and screenshot is given above.
Now these two conflicting statements speak volumes about the
discrimination by the Facebook. It simply means that Facebook through
its official statement to global media wants the world to believe that
they are the torchbearers of freedom of expression and allow everyone
to speak their minds out. On the other hand the face that individuals
like me get to see is a much horrible one. It talks about hate and
intolerance and all forms of so-called equality and unshakable
resolve. While Facebook is portraying itself as the silent and
innocent onlooker for the entire world, I wonder what gives them the
right to remove a major chunk of my life from the web.

I don’t think Facebook should come up with any clarification
statements for the Muslim world over what happened. It is clearer than
crystal that as long as we are labelled as extremists, we are not
going to enjoy the equal rights in this world. And those that are
trying to play God love to label us that. While reporting the Facebook
ban in Pakistan in different articles, guardian.co. uk mentions the
brutality of Pakistan Army in Swat whileYahoo thinks it’s necessary to
unveil Al-Qaida’s plans of attacks on Danish and Dutch football teams.
It is a blatant attempt to criticize Pakistan for placing the ban,
link the country to extremism and terrorism and thereby justifying
this sacrilegious act of Facebook users.