Pakistan court orders Facebook ban

[axeman]

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Pakistan court orders Facebook ban

A Pakistani court has issued a ban on the social networking site Facebook after a user-generated contest page encourged members to post caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday instructed the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to ban the site after the Islamic Lawyers Movement complained that a page called “Draw Mohammed Day” is blasphemous.

Sajjad Chaudhry, the presiding judge, instructed officials with the ministry of telecommunications to submit a written reply to the ban by May 31 when courts will open a detailed hearing on the case. A ban is to be enforced in the meantime.

"We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to internet service providers,” Khurram Mehran, a spokesperson for the PTA, said.

About 20 people carried banners outside of courthouse in Lahore, condemning Facebook and praising Prophet Mohammed.

Lawyers also petitioned the Pakistani government to register a strong protest with Facebook’s owners.

"The competition has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims," lawyer Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali said.

Facebook users in Pakistan, however, told AFP they could still access the site after the ban was imposed on Wednesday.

Officials with the Pakistani government told the court they had already blocked Facebook pages relating to the competition, but the lawyers group argued that no part of a site can be banned unless the entire site is blocked.

[crooks]

Christ, it really is an Islamic Republic, isn't it?

It's depressing to think there were people outside the courthouse with banners for a ban:(.

[bigross86]

Facebook | Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!

[axeman]

After Facebook, Pak blocks YouTube for 'objectionable content' - Pakistan - World - The Times of India

After blocking access to the website “Facebook”, Pakistan’s government on Thursday blocked the popular video sharing website “YouTube” for hosting blasphemous material.

A statement released by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that YouTube had been blocked due to "objectionable content." However, the statement did not specify the nature of content.

All internet service providers were directed by the PTA on Thursday to block YouTube. All internet users were unable to access the site after 11:00am.

A PTA official wishing not to be named said the action was taken after the PTA authorities determined that some sacrilegious caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were transferred from Facebook to YouTube.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25 percent of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.

"It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 percent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic," he said.

The move follows the Lahore High Court's order to block Facebook for an indefinite period as it acted on a petition filed by the Islamic Lawyers Forum, which had sought a complete ban on the social networking website.


The court also directed the foreign ministry to raise the issue of the blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammed at an international forum.

Meanwhile, demonstrations continued on Thursday across the country in protest against the social networking website, Facebook.

[1979]

Facebook | Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!

I like this one.

[Bigfella]

I like this one.

Yep, me too.

[axeman]

Google chief suspects ulterior motive in Pakistan-Internet-Infotech-The Economic Times

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt on Friday said he suspects suppressing political criticism is a factor behind the move to block YouTube and Facebook in Pakistan in the name of Islam.

"I'm always suspicious of these broad bans," Schmidt told a gathering at non-profit public policy institute New America Foundation, of which he is chairman of the board.

"In every case we looked at, there is an official reason then another reason. There is an awful lot of political criticism they are blocking at the same time. I am very suspicious here."

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) banned access to Facebook, YouTube and more than 450 links, including restricted access to Wikipedia in view of what it called "growing sacrilegious content".

A Facebook page that fueled rage and protest in Pakistan was gone from the popular online social networking service on Friday but the popular social networking service said it remained blocked in that country.

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

The disappearance of the page came as protesters in Pakistan shouted "Death to Facebook,"{I have to say, this is quite funny} "Death to America" and burnt US flags, venting growing anger over "sacrilegious" caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet.

[hammer]

They should also ban internet.

[Zaitsev]

Didnt they also ban wikipedia?

[Vinod2070]

Some of my Pakistani friends are mighty pissed with the ban. Its not earning the government any points. A foolish idea.

[Hindu_Infidel]

I saw that page. The activity had increased way out of control. After a while, facebook gave up and blocked it. Most of the images were only to piss people off.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/773...8691764398.jpg
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3...3283835100.jpg
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5...3281984100.jpg

[antimony]

Went through the FB page.

Pretty tasteless stuff, most of it, I must say.

Also goes to show the strong feelings Prophet Mohammad and Islam in general generates in the minds of non-Muslims.

This sort of stuff does nothing to mend relations between Islam and Others.

[Vinod2070]

True, most of it is pretty tasteless. Nothing else could have been expected anyway.

[Tronic]

Also goes to show the strong feelings Prophet Mohammad and Islam in general generates in the minds of non-Muslims.

This sort of stuff does nothing to mend relations between Islam and Others.

Its morons on both sides of the fence. And no "strong feelings" here, just people who go out of there way to piss other people off. If you think it is solely directly at Islam than you're wrong, am sure they'd be more than happy to draw the same stuff on any religion or any culture. Freedom of Speech. ;)


And.. in the regards to the topic. Their main aim was to invoke a response, and thanks to Pakistan, that facebook group achieved their goal. If no one cared, and turned their backs on these people, no one would be drawing the Prophet, they would move on to something else.

[Hindu_Infidel]

What about this one