[APCPress] Facebook ban in Pakistan is shocking, says Bytes For All

[Karen Higgs]

Facebook ban in Pakistan is shocking, says Bytes For All

Pakistanis woke up today to find sites like Facebook and YouTube blocked 
after a government crackdown on “blasphemous” websites. APC member Bytes 
For All has issued the following statement through APC:

ISLAMABAD, Thursday May 20 2010 --- APC member Bytes For All and its 
members are shocked at the blanket ban exercised on Facebook in 
Pakistan. With the ongoing campaign of Muslim Facebook users against 
“Draw Mohammed Day”, a campaign urging Facebookers to sarcastically draw 
the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the Lahore High Court today 
ordered Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block Facebook in 
Pakistani cyberspace until the next hearing of the case, scheduled on 
May 31 2010.

We consider this blanket ban of the website unnecessary, based on 
wrongful accusations, against civil liberties and it will further 
instigate hatred among international Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

We believe that the court was misinformed by the lawyers or supporting 
technical persons that the specific URL block is not possible, and as a 
result the entire site is blocked because of a single hate-speech page.

Responding to this as quoted in Dawn Newspaper, Mr. Wahaj-us-Siraj, 
Convener of Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan said 
“basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just ordered 
it, but it should have been done in a better way than by just blocking a 
particular URL or link.”

“Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially youth and 
adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them 
and they spend most of their time on it.”
	
Ms. Nighat Dad, Advocate High Court and renown women's rights advocate 
said “the petitioners [those who took the banning of Facebook to the 
Court] have in fact imputed Facebook for such “blasphemous” reporting, 
as they have no expertise/know-how in relation to the use of information 
technology, and especially using internet. Therefore, the Court may have 
been misled by the main petitioner, and as a result, the court order may 
have extensive negative effects related to internet governance in Pakistan.

Facebook is extremely popular among internet users in Pakistan. The 
court was told today that there are about 4.3 million Facebook users in 
Pakistan. However, as per http://www.checkfacebook.com/ the total number 
of Pakistani users is around 2.35 million. According to Alexa.com, it is 
third most accessed website from Pakistan.

Bytes For All is also shocked about the argument given in the court 
today - that since China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates 
blocked Facebook, Pakistan should also do the same. We believe that 
Pakistan, as a democratic country, is different to the mentioned 
dictatorial regimes. These countries block Facebook in order to prevent 
social mobilisation against dictators for democracy.

Sana Saleem, a young blogger from Karachi who writes for Global Voices 
also said “the ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ campaign appears to be nothing more 
than a desperate attempt to incite and provoke Muslims – let’s not give 
them the satisfaction.”

On the blanket ban of the Facebook, Sana said “the ban has left me 
dumbfounded. I mean the Country's high court has chosen to overlook a 
thousand piled up cases and react to a campaign on a social networking 
site? Truly ironic. This whole mess has only added more fuel to the fire 
and has given the campaign a publicity boost.”

Dr. Awab Alvi, the most famous political blogger in Pakistan said “why 
should the people of Pakistan suffer for an action committed elsewhere, 
it may have better been to order a Pakistani lawyer to represent the 
people of Pakistan, filing a lawsuit in the jurisdiction of Facebook and 
accusing them of having violated their own terms of service listed on 
their own website. It may have taught them a lesson not to repeat such a 
mistake again. Little good this ban shall do now in Pakistan.”

In a twitter message from abroad, Jehan Ara, President P at SHA said “it’s 
ridiculous to ban Facebook. Who does it hurt but us? Suddenly Pakistanis 
have lost use of a social networking tool. When will sense prevail?”

Worried about possible violent clashes on the issue in the country, 
Fariha Akhtar, an IT Professional, Take Back the Tech! campaigner and 
women rights activist said “I consider blocking Facebook as a protest to 
a religious hatred group similar to burying your head in the sand. I 
want to join the Facebook group to “Honour the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W)" 
and to record a peaceful protest to that hatred group but I cannot. The 
solution to the problem is not in turning your eyes away from the 
problem but in facing it head on and figuring out ways to SOLVE it so 
that it does not happen again. While I'm an advocate of freedom of 
expression, I also believe in respecting others' beliefs and do not 
approve of violence of any kind, be it Holocaust or continuous attacks 
on the character of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Websites 
like Facebook should follow their policies that do not allow any sort of 
racism and should immediately delete all sorts of hatred groups. 
Furthermore, I appeal anti-violence activists from across the world to 
reject all forms of hate speech that can result in extreme violence.”

Due to media frenzy, the situation in the country on this issue is 
getting increasingly heated with the passage of time. Local media is 
further hyping things up based solely on emotional grounds, without 
understanding the actual dynamics of the Facebook Ban. We have yet to 
witness rational discussion on this issue.

It is very unfortunate that a few of the civil rights activists against 
this ban have already gotten death threats or are being accused of 
blasphemy.

Adding more fuel to the fire, different religious leaders have called 
for the government to order total ban on diplomatic, social and economic 
relations with the West. Without understanding the core issue, different 
religious political parties have moved their youth wings in colleges and 
universities to demonstrate against Facebook, which can result in 
violent clashes and loss of life and property as was witnessed during 
Danish caricatures saga.

The Facebook ban also impacted Google search engine, which was 
temporarily blocked, as well as Wikipedia. The popular video streaming 
site, Youtube, is now also inaccessible from the country. Other services 
like Blackberry that were also blocked are now slowly coming back, 
however cell phone bandwidth also blocks Facebook and Youtube.

While we stand for civil liberties and open net in the country, 
Pakistani internet users are the ones who suffer, while hate speech 
mongers and extremist on both sides continue to gain more ground. Let’s 
hope that sanity prevails in the long run!


*Useful Resources*

PTA’s Orders to Block Facebook: 
http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1390&Itemid=301 


Sana Saleems’s Blog: http://blog.dawn.com/2010/05/18/art-or-incitement/

Dr. Awab Alvi's Blog: 
http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2010/05/19/lahore-high-court-facebook-blocked


FOR CONTACTS please write to Karen Higgs, APC communications manager 
khiggs at apc.org.

END