Facebook apologises, says removal of Hamza Ali Abbasi status was mistake

[Selous]

PDF, whose servers are hosted in the US,

WHAT ?!!!

 

[iPhone]

I found FB to be very narcissistic. Look at me, look at how cool I am, this is my car, this is my gf/bf, this is where I vacationed, this is where I hung out and ate. And of course your friends follow suit with the same tirade or you follow them and upload your personal pictures, then keep following those pics to see how many people liked it. What? That person didn't click on like? He or she must be jealous. Seriously, I think it's a disease.

 

[MarkusS]

Never forget it


Nothing Thats Saudis law not Islamic law, lot of other islamic countries have Churches and Temples


So Freedom of speech means you can insult anyone ??? is that what it is sir?

lol,sorry but thats so laughable.

 

[salarsikander]

lol,sorry but thats so laughable.

Hi,

I pity Your level of understanding, But then again i would be so naive to expect anything more from you

 

[MarkusS]

Hi,

I pity Your level of understanding, But then again i would be so naive to expect anything more from you

do you want a cookie? In case your caritas package was not delivered on time. But more of this please, you entertain my train ride.

 

[salarsikander]

do you want a cookie? In case your caritas package was not delivered on time. But more of this please, you entertain my train ride.

Hi,

Youre making my morning here, it was getting really bored here.
its kinda good to mess with big headed person like you, you know. Who cant think beyond themselves
Very shallow

 

[iPhone]

I have couple of question to ask to all the offended Pakistanis Muslims - You folks look down upon all the other religions and Hinduism in particular. I have seen a load of Pakistanis making offensive posts on Hindu gods/goddess here in pdf and other social media platforms. There was a Muslim painter who drew nude pictures of Hindu goddesses. Hindu god/goddess pics were drawn on slippers or under garments.

My questions now -

1) If you get so deeply hurt when someone make fun of your religion, why do you do so to begin with? And please don't deny that you do not insult other religions or look down upon them.
2) Did you see any Hindu go ballistic/on killing spree for the acts of these nutcases/attention seekers? Mostly you would see a protest by a Hindu organization and if it is an online post many will report it and that's it but a large populace will simply ignore them and that's it the story dies there.

Moral :
The more attention you give to the attention seekers, the more they will come after you.

OK I'll answer. First, why is your question to only Pakistani muslims and not all Muslims in general?
Anyway disregard that.

Secondly, name me one Pakistani newspaper which has published Hindu deities in a derogatory fashion? And then continued to do it repeatedly even after a fare amount of criticism and protests? You got any?

Yes, there is a lot of mockery posted about the Hindu gods by all sorts of people on the Internet. And yes, by Pakistanis, too. Because there's a lot of mockery and insults posted about every religion on the internet. There's a lot of offensive stuff posted about Islam by Hindus.

That's individuals making offensive jests on the Internet. Can't help that. And ppl aren't concerned about it either. The problem for the most part is official news outlets making such offensive jests. So, try to understand what is being discussed.

 

[punit]

i was banned so many times on PDF .. where is my freedom of speech webby @WebMaster ?

 

[Providence]

The servers are hosted in US. So US corporations are subjected to US law. Now pakistanis here might not know much about rule of law but here in US we have something called class action lawsuits.

Leaving the nigger word just lying around there could have triggered it. So it's good that it has been removed.

And as for the content of the post and freedom of expression is concerned, go watch the movie "Django Unchained" and just fcuking count the no of times the N word was used. Nobody objected to it.

It's not because we define our own rules but people here generally agree the context in which such rights has to be exercised.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Looks like its ok to call folks nigger

Used openly in songs freedom of expression ?

 

[Providence]

Looks like its ok to call folks nigger

Used openly in songs freedom of expression ?

It says I am a crazy *** nigger. He didn't say it to any one. Try to understand the nuances of law before shooting off like a mentally retarded/

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

0_0 should not have banned his freedom of speech ....

 

[Irfan Hanif]

CEO and Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said his social network's removal of actor Hamza Ali Abbasi's status regarding the Charlie Hebdo attack and freedom of expression may have been a mistake.

When asked by one profile Angelic Munni what Zuckerberg has to say about his network's deletion of Hamza's post, Mark Zuckerberg responded: "I don't think this should have been blocked. Our team might have made a mistake. Justin, can you look into this?"

In the response, Zuckerberg tagged Justin Osofsky, whose Facebook profile identifies him as Vice President of Global Operations and Media Partnerships for Facebook. The CEO's comment has so far got over 950 'likes'.

Pakistani actor and director Hamza Ali Abbasi Sunday said that Facebook authorities deactivated his profile and removed his status in which he had condemned the killings at the Parisian office of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

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Hamza posted a screenshot of the deleted post on Sunday along with Facebook's notification that said they had removed it since it violated the social networking website's community standards.

The actor, who is vocal on social media about his views related to social issues, politics, culture, and religion had condemned the killings at Paris' Charlie Hebdo office last week and said, "even my blood boils when someone insults my Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) but that does not give individuals the right to kill".

In the status shared on his verified Facebook account – which has over 1.6 million followers – he said that while "freedom of expression should include criticism, disagreement or even rejection of faiths or ideology but should not and must not allow “insult”.

Hamza went on to say that the West must revisit and fix its definition of ‘freedom of speech,’ otherwise someone from the two billion Muslim population "will go ballistic and kill unjustly”.

“Would it be ‘freedom of expression’ if I brand black people as niggers or if I say Hitler was a messiah?” he added.

Hamza Ali Abbasi stands for "universal freedom of expression"


Speaking to Dawn.com, Hamza shared: "I had been trying to log into my Facebook for a couple of hours and it wasn't accepting the password. I genuinely thought it had been hacked but then I got an email from Facebook saying that my account had been temporarily blocked and my status had been deleted and this was the first of 3 warnings. That really made me angry so I took the screen grab and posted it as soon as I had access to my account!"

He adds, "I post so many controversial things on my Facebook, I believe in voicing my opinion. It's just funny that their selective freedom of speech caused them to delete only this particular post of all things."

On learning that Mark Zuckerberg had responded and called it a mistake, he said, "I'm glad that it has gotten back to him and that it's brought attention to exactly what I was trying to convey in my post. Freedom of expression that is not universal is not really freedom, is it?

Elaborating on what his post was about, the young actor revealed: "It's not fair that when we say things that go against the West, we are branded as racists or intolerant. One is allowed to disagree, one is allowed to criticize but we must not make fun of exemplary/religious figures. I can make fun of Gandhi but that doesn't mean I will. It's important to address such issues and convey our message in the most civilized manner possible. When you stoop to a level of derogatory insults, there is a possibility of some backlash from a community of over 2 billion people."


Internet rights groups in Pakistan had slammed Facebook ‘double standards’ on Monday, a day after Pakistani actor and director Hamza Ali Abbasi Sunday said the network deactivated his profile and removed a post in which he had called on the West to rethink its definition of 'freedom of expression'.

“This is beyond ridiculous,” Sana Saleem of Bolo Bhi tells Dawn. “I don’t understand what this double standard is.”

Saleem, whose organisation advocates digital security and privacy, said the social network was guilty of hypocrisy. “Facebook removes pictures of a woman breastfeeding, but they won’t, for instance, remove images of child pornography,” she said, citing the example of Facebook’s refusal to take down a page promoting child prostitution despite repeated complaints.

“What are the standards for Facebook when it comes to removing content? How does it work? Is it automated? If so, it’s completely flawed,” says Saleem. “If it’s a team reviewing content, it is flawed.”

“This is very worrying because Facebook now owns Intsagram and Whatsapp. If the same policies are applied across the board, that will be the death of freedom of expression,” she adds.

Shahzad Ahmad of NGO Bytes for All says, "In cases of ambiguity, Bytes for All urges Facebook to err on the sideof freedom of expression rather than censorship, and only block those accounts and posts which directly and intentionally call for violence in an actionable manner.

He adds however, "Having said this, we do not endorse the contents of Hamza Ali Abbasi's post. Rather we believe that criticisin, questioning, or even insulting, any individual or ideology does come under freedom of expression, even if it is offensive to many, so long as it is does not directly and intentionally incite violence."

The incident comes just days after Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressed on the company’s commitment to freedom of speech, and pointed out that a ‘extremist in Pakistan’ had tried to have him sentenced to death for refusing to ban content about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him). In the January 9 post, he had said, “I won’t let that happen on Facebook. I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.”

 

[Khalid Newazi]

Say anything anti-Semitic and Facebook will remove it. I remember there was a page named Misunderstood Hitler, it mostly made Nazi jokes and offensive jokes but not towards any religion or race, Facebook removed the page because it was "Anti-Semitic". Zuckerberg is a hypocritical Jew and thus Facebook will not tolerate anything against Jews.

 

[Menace2Society]

I think all Muslims should test out 'freedom of speech' and walk with disgustingly offensive cartoons drawn on their tops.