Don’t just leap on me after just taking a look at the title of the story and allow me to at least explain my take on the issue. As this is a famous story now that the famous internet platforms i.e. Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and no less then 1000 other websites have been banned in Pakistan as a result of blasphemous content posted by the the users.
There’s no doubt in it that Facebook WAS biased and discriminated the whole issue in the name of “freedom of speech.” Still I believe Censorship is NOT the solution to anything. Or for that matter, there was no point of blanket ban when that particular URL could be banned.
Is the Censorship really a Solution? NO! It’s NOT!
- By creating all this “protest” and “boycott” hype, we actually helped them achieve their anti-Islamic motives as we made them important.
- By this censorship, you are no longer connected to the worldwide Facebookers to give your point of view or to counter any such activity.
- This censorship has risked the living of hundreds of thousands of Pakistani developers and IT professionals who make their living and do their business online.
- Political motives of censoring the New Media are being achieved with the help of this censorship.
- This censorship gives a shortcut reason to curb or censor anything in the name of religion which otherwise can be dealt in a better way.
- We could have used the power of “new media” to spread the peace message of Prophet Muhammad SAW and Islam.
Why and how all this happened?
All this censorship happened after the orders Lahore High Court. LHC gave the orders after hearing a petition filed by the so called “Islamic Lawyers Movement.” Unfortunately, the Islamic Lawyers Movement lied and deceived the court about the facts related to the entire issue. As they misguided the court about the number of Pakistani users on Facebook and about the revenue that Facebook earns from us.
There are certainly the political motives behind this censorship and YOU have to figure them out! Also, I am a Muslim and I love our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW and still I protest against this ban on internet platforms because I believe the matter could have solved otherwise as the cartoonist Molly Norris had already seek the forgiveness from Muslim world and Facebook was ready to ban that particular page in the respective countries.
