As incredible as it may sound, Muslims are again calling for the death of someone who should be hailed a champion to their agenda. [6] Even though Facebook’s CEO is allowing them to use his network to promote jihad across the board, paradoxically, they are reproaching him his stance on freedom of expression. After the devastating attack by radical Muslim terrorists in Paris that left 10 journalists and two police officers dead, news organizations are doing exactly what the barbarians want them to do — self-censoring. [10] Fortunately, not everyone is giving into the hysteria and fear, opting instead to fight for the right for every person to freely speak their mind. [9] Out of the blue, Facebook inventor thought that it was the right moment to pull a little drama-queen attitude and tried to steal a bit of attention while everyone focuses on Charlie Hebdo incident. [7] , Mark Zuckerberg said that more than ever he is committed to ensuring Facebook will always be a platform for free speech. In a Facebook post early Friday morning, he told the world that he and the world’s largest social media platform stand with the victims of the attack on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. [12] According to a Facebook status by the social medial giant’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg explains that Muslims are furious over his business decision to not forego freedom of speech to appease angry Islamists. On Friday, January 9 2015, the 30-year-old billionaire posted a lengthy status about the disagreement. In the post, Zuckerberg recalled a 2010 incident in Pakistan in which a Pakistani lawyer tried to have the Facebook CEO sentenced to death because the social media network refused to remove content dealing with the Muslim prophet Muhammad, which some Muslims found blasphemous and offensive. [1] [4] It was a result of the site’s promotion of an Everybody Draw Mohammed Day which took place on May 20 of that year. And while he did not end up being charged with any crime or sentenced to death, the Pakistani government did block Facebook in their country. [5]
A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him. We stood up for this because different voices — even if they’re sometimes offensive — can make the world a better and more interesting place. Facebook has always been a place where people across the world share their views and ideas. We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world. Yet as I reflect on yesterday’s attack and my own experience with extremism, this is what we all need to reject — a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world. I won’t let that happen on Facebook. I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage. #JeSuisCharlie [1]
Referring to the masked Muslim men who gunned down 12 employees at the headquarters of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, Zuckerberg added his condolences and a hashtag to show solidarity with the magazine. Zuckerberg claims to use the same fair ruling for everyone on Facebook, but banning and deletion are up to the discretion of the administrator, as many page managers have experienced. [1] Zuckerberg said that it’s our duty to reject “a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world.” [12] The post has gone viral, with more than 400,000 likes and over 30,000 comments. Although thousands of Facebook users commended Zuckerberg for his courageous actions, of course, there were some who still weren’t pleased with his statements. Many Muslims and Pakistani Facebook users were offended because, to some, the statement reads as if Zuckerberg blamed a whole nation for one person’s actions. [3] Then, of course, there were some who condemned his decision to support freedom of speech because offensive, religion-bashing posts could fall into that category. [2] It didn’t take long for Facebook users to call him out on his statement. As The Mirror reports:
The post has a huge number of comments, but one of the most “liked” one suggests Zuckerberg is “playing favourites”.
“What about all those people in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria who died? Never seen you condemn those barbaric acts…
The commenter points out that Facebook does, in fact, ban countless pages for posting “offensive” things.
“Sounds like playing favourites to me… Freedom of speech and hate speech is not the same. Go educate yourself please.” [13]
Perhaps the very serious ransom on Zuckerberg’s head will open his eyes to the dangers of Islam. Just like Charlie Hebdo, the Facebook CEO is finding out that Muslims will not cease in their attempts to use democracy and freedom of speech to destroy democracy and freedom of speech.
