Facebook boss faces death in Pakistan
p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- Mark Zuckerberg (right), the man who runs social advertising site Fa$ebook, could be facing prosecution under a Pakistan penal code that allows for sentence of death for blasphemy.
“The move to prosecute Zuckerberg parallels the government’s attempts to shut down a substantial spectrum of internet activity”, says Privacy International.
Says PI’s Cracking the Black Box >>>
The government of Pakistan is moving swiftly through the High Court to shut down a substantial spectrum of Internet activity and communication. A confidential draft of new censorship provisions shows that the government is planning to increase its already powerful grip over freedom of expression.
Following publication of what the government and religious leaders regard as blasphemous images on the Internet the authorities successfully shut down Facebook access throughout the country. They are now moving to do the same with such sites as YouTube and Google. Last month more than 10,000 sites were banned on pretext of blasphemy.
On May 31st a High Court judge, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, ordered the government to take action in respect to alleged blasphemy on Facebook. On June 11th in consequence of this order, the Deputy Attorney General authorised and initiated the first stage of investigation and prosecution of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. The Deputy Attorney General on June 11th lodged with police a “First Information Report (FIR)” against “the owner of Facebook”.
An FIR is the document that Police register when a case is lodged against anyone. This document then becomes the prime source of evidence and on the basis the legal case will move.
The FIR – number 614/2010 – was lodged at Civil Lines Police Station Lahore under section “295-C” of the Pakistan Penal Code, which reads “Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”
The actual FIR details the charge “in respect of an offense under Section 295-C Pakistan Penal Code and punishment under this offense is death penalty or rigorous life imprisonment”
The next hearing is scheduled for 12th July 2010.
This order by the High Court to the government essentially means that a prima facie case has already been made against Facebook’s founder, clearing the way for a charge and prosecution to follow. It is highly likely that this prosecution will be initiated in time for the 12th July hearing. At that point arrest papers may be issued and Zuckerberg will become a wanted felon.
These actions have arisen from a writ petition filed in the Lahore High Court on 19th May (W.P. NO.11559/2010 —-Titled Mohammad Azhar Siddique vs Government of Pakistan. In this Writ the Petitioner Azhar Siddique, a lawyer, blamed the government of Pakistan for failing to register an FIR against Facebook for not removing the blasphemous page even after thousands of complaints.
The High Court on May 31st temporarily lifted the national ban on Facebook but ordered the Deputy Attorney General to take further legal action. The FIR against Zuckerberg appears to be the path chosen to comply with the court order.
The Pakistan action is not a precedent. Earlier this year three Google executives were convicted because of violation of Italian law relating to material posted on YouTube.
The Burning Questions
- Precisely which sites are the Pakistan government banning? Is the full list of 10,500 sites available?
- Precisely how is the government managing the censorship?
- What risks would Internet users in Pakistan face if they use circumvention and anonymisation techniques to access banned sites?
- For experts on Pakistan law – are there any avenues of appeal against the government’s actions?
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, Marc)
… and identi.ca
Privacy International – Facebook founder faces death sentence in Pakistan, June 17, 2010
Cracking the Black Box – Pakistan’s Internet Crisis, June, 2010
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June 18th, 2010 at 10:44 am
It’s always great when religious crackpots are calling the shots.
I’m amazed that in this day and age there are still fools that believe in ghosts, spirits, gods, and books of fairy-tales, and they let such nonsense take over their entire society. What’s next, we bring back witch trials?
People in Pakistan must be really dumb to let such maniacs run their gov’t. Religion is so wonderful…..
June 18th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Um, is canada, or the US different, aside from the calls for death? Don’t forget, Bush called the invasion a “Holy War”.
Is Israel different?
Is it really only pakistan?
Are the people dumb?
June 18th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Yes, the people are quite dumb, but none of them notice it, as they are all being dumb “Together.”
If there was one person as insane as that alone, they would likely be considered insane, rightly so, but if everyone is that stupid who can tell the difference except for one outside of their nation?
Also, yes, our president called it a holy war, and that is a statement which will likely be mocked throughout generations to come.
June 18th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
18/6/2010 the day /b/ went too far.. again
June 18th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Yeah, religion of peace…
June 18th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
ALL religions are like this to some degree or another. Arguing over which one is worse is like arguing over the dangers of cyanide vs arsenic.
I’m getting really sick of the nutbars and their phony-baloney beliefs both abroad and here at home. It’s time the rational-thinking rise up and stop tolerating this stupidity. Respecting the religious beliefs of others is akin to respecting other’s beliefs that child-abuse and murder is A-OK, or that 3+5=9, or that the tooth-fairy is real. If someone tells me they go to church, I’ll openly mock them, and this includes family members. If someone tells me they believe in a ‘god’, I treat them as though they just told me they believe in Santa.
The western world may still have it’s fair share of religious kooks, but at least we’re not stuck in the stone-age like most of the middle-east. The only reason GW Bush called it a holy-war was to appease the evangelical and other religitard freaks at home into going along with the blood-for-resources program. Besides, he’s just the dumb figure-head puppet for the establishment. The military-industrial complex says jump and your president/PM says “how high?” Obama is no different. If you think the US actions in the middle east have any motivations outside corporate/establishment profiteering, you’re high. Sadly, 80+% of the population are just dumber than a box of hammers, so as long as the mainstream media exist, they will go along with the program, no questions asked. If they get out of line, another 9/11-style attitude correction courtesy of your overlords will get the masses back in lock-step.
June 18th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
“but at least we’re not stuck in the stone-age like most of the middle-east.”
The middle east is very, very, very rich. Now why would the people be “stone-age like” ?
June 19th, 2010 at 12:12 am
RW ^^ 2 up said: “The middle east is very, very, very rich. Now why would the people be “stone-age like” ?”
Are you crazy? First, there are NO individual rights and barely any due process of law. Second, there are a few wealthy overlords that hog all the $ from natural resources, yet the vast vast majority live in squalor. Many places don’t even have proper sanitation. The standard of living for 99% of people is terrible. The only people who are “rich” are those born into the various ruling families, who exploit this Islam garbage to keep the rest of the population dumb and harmless. Even the “Jewel of the Middle East”, Dubai, is a complete dump with a cheap facade thrown over it.
The middle-east is so nice, the waiting list to emigrate to western civilization is only a mile long…. LOL
June 19th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Pakistani newspapers have not covered this story at all which means this was made up
The original originator of this story was israel and now other media organizations copied and pasted the story to create a propaganda story. This is not true, cia and mossad planted this story and western news networks reprinted it. Please disregard this story and do not believe the reprinter of this article on anything from niw on as they have just lost credibility. We really need to fact check these people and ban them. Thanks.
July 5th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Facebook Testing Face Detection in Photos http://stylishfirst.com/