By: Anum Rehman Chagani<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?”<\/p>\n
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’.<\/p>\n
Osofsky later commented on the thread and apologised. “As Mark mentioned, we made a mistake in taking this down. We try to do our best, but sometimes make mistakes. We apologize for this error, and hope that the author will re-post it as we are not able to restore it from our end. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
In the status shared on his verified Facebook account \u2013 which has over 1.6 million followers \u2013 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 \u201cinsult\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hamza went on to say that the West must revisit and fix its definition of \u2018freedom of speech,\u2019 otherwise someone from the two billion Muslim population “will go ballistic and kill unjustly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould it be \u2018freedom of expression\u2019 if I brand black people as niggers or if I say Hitler was a messiah?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Hamza Ali Abbasi glad Zuckerberg responded<\/p>\n
Speaking to Dawn.com, Hamza relates how it all came about. “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 three warnings. That really made me angry so I took the screen grab and posted it as soon as I had access to my account.”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
Elaborating on what his post was about, the young actor said, “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 criticise 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 civilised manner possible. When you stoop to a level of derogatory insults, there is a possibility of some backlash from a community of over two billion people.”<\/p>\n
Internet activists slam Facebook decision<\/p>\n
Internet rights groups in Pakistan had slammed Facebook \u2018double standards\u2019 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’.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is beyond ridiculous,\u201d Sana Saleem of Bolo Bhi tells Dawn. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what this double standard is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saleem, whose organisation advocates digital security and privacy, said the social network was guilty of hypocrisy. \u201cFacebook removes pictures of a woman breastfeeding, but they won\u2019t, for instance, remove images of child pornography,\u201d she said, citing the example of Facebook\u2019s refusal to take down a page promoting child prostitution despite repeated complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are the standards for Facebook when it comes to removing content? How does it work? Is it automated? If so, it\u2019s completely flawed,\u201d says Saleem. \u201cIf it\u2019s a team reviewing content, it is flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
The incident comes just days after Facebook\u2019s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressed on the company\u2019s commitment to freedom of speech, and pointed out that a \u2018extremist in Pakistan\u2019 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, \u201cI won\u2019t let that happen on Facebook. I\u2019m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n