Pakistan blocks Facebook due to Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
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The Pakistani government (Pakistan Telecommunications Authority) has ordered all Pakistani ISPs to block traffic to Facebook until May 31 to prevent citizens seeing the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” pages after a group of Muslim lawyers petitioned The Lahore High Court.
Protests in Pakistan have reportedly already begun:
In the southern city of Karachi, 2,000 female students rallied demanding that Facebook be banned for tolerating the controversial web page. Several dozen male students held a rally nearby, with some holding signs that urged Islamic holy war against those who blaspheme the prophet.
The “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” Facebook page claims that promoting the day isn’t meant to offend Muslims:
We are not trying to slander the average muslim , its not a muslim/islam hatepage. We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammed depictions, that we’re not afraid of them. That they can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us to silence.
CBS News reports that Facebook is “investigating the block.”
“While the content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal in some countries. We are investigating this. In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries,” the company said in a statement.
The “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” Facebook page has over 50,000 people who “like” it. The “AGAINST ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!'” has over 64,000 individuals who “like” it.
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