Another reason to Opt-out of the face book.

One Facebook, Two Faces

By admin · Sunday, May 23, 201046 Comments

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’.

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

Hi Saad,

After reviewing your situation, we have determined that you 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

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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.