It was a wonderful Sunday yesterday with beautiful weather in Islamabad. I was enjoying my relax hours during weekend – longtime readers know that we usually don’t work on weekends – when a friend called me to tell that Twitter is blocked in Pakistan due to Draw Mohammad Day.
Honestly, I didn’t know of Draw Mohammad Day until that moment and would have never known of it if access to Twitter wasn’t blocked in Pakistan.
Just to ask you – did you know of it? Please vote below:
Government of Pakistan say that Twitter didn’t respond positively to their request for removal of content which could be blasphemous in nature, and hence they had no option but to completely block the website in Pakistan.
Facebook, on other hands, complied with the government’s demands and made sure that no blasphemous content would reach Pakistani audience.
It is evident that government’s action of blocking twitter was to restrict the access of blasphemous content. But you will agree that it didn’t work. Instead, the blockade acted like an advertisement for Draw Mohammad Day by recalling everyone – even those who had forgotten this evil day.
Moreover, if authorities concerned may know, Twitter doesn’t host pictures itself, rather it uses other services for hosting images. Hence chances of circulation of blasphemous content were minimal, as we got no reports of circulation of blasphemous content even when Twitter was un-banned later in the night.
Having said this, I must note here that Twitter isn’t angel in itself too. Twitter, earlier in January 2012, had announced that it could filter content (tweets) by country – to meet local laws and standards.
Twitter had Noted following in a blog post:
Starting today (January 26th, 2012), we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.
Then why not to block tweets in Pakistan? Maybe they took Pakistani government lightly, or even worse, Pakistan government probably couldn’t communicate the need properly. We don’t know what was the case.
ProPakistani is awaiting a reply from Twitter to learn what exactly Government of Pakistan had asked for.
So what did we achieve by banning Twitter? Only one thing: Bad press.
Blocking internet (twitter, Facebook or any other website or service) is considered as vital as a plane crash. Whole world covers it; every website, newspaper, magazine, tabloid will curse you for blocking internet.
I will recommend authorities concerned to make sure that blocking something is worth it. For instance, Draw Mohammad Day on Facebook was harmful indeed. Ridiculous cartoons had started appearing in news feeds. They were popping up whenever someone commented on it (even when cursing the cartoonist), or when your friends were tagging you to report the image and so on.
But twitter has different mechanism. Like, you can’t tag someone, images won’t pop up if a friend of yours comment there or reports it, unless he retweets it. Twitter is all-together a different thing. And above all – Twitter isn’t as big as Facebook, locally or globally.
So we will have to evaluate the decision and its impacts, the bad name it could earn for you. Is it all worth while or you are just shooting in the air to earn nothing.
Why is Draw Mohammad Day harmful?
What about gender inequality? Racism? How we treat the poor?
Why we compare two wrong things to justify one wrong thing?
See twitter, twitter play a very good rule in Arab uprising.
No one stopping any one to do such good steps against Racism, and inequality.
i completely agree with Hamza, Well Said.
look at this liberal ch*tiya, he’s worried about racism but same times almost 1/3 population of world’s feelings getting hurt by some intolerant turds and he gives a damn about it.
I always say, these (fake) liberal (real) fascists ch*tyas are equally dangerous than talibans.
And you are a bigger ch*tiya than him
This comment was very good and well listened if the word start with “ch” was not used here.
Abuses make your argument worthless, even if they are true.
“Gali dainy sy kisi aur ka kuch nhi jata,bus apna mou ginda ho jata hia”!
Friend jesay logo ko dil chata hai torture room main le ja kar poocho k sirf deen k mamlay main hi kam akal(dumb) q ho jatey ho,baki apnay faiday ki cheez main hamesha hoshyari dekhao gay.
Anyone who imagines wanting to take a Muslim to a torture room to ask about religious questions automatically fails.
main ney kaha hai sirf dil chata hai, ye nahi kaha ley jao ga,jis tarah corrupt politician ko dekh kar dil chata hai gooli se ura do.wasey agar islam main 1 katal ki permission hoti tu shahid saleem main tumain zaroor urata.LOL
All actions of this sort begins with desires like yours.
OMG u r the DUMBEST man on earth.i m 100% sure.
Well we already know your wishes towards me.
Totally Agreed with @Javid, well said.
yea, @javid is 100% right. kuch loog andar se hi beygha*rat hotey hain.
actually its as failed stunt by twitter to get famous like facebook did 2 year ago!! probably twitter failed in their own stunt!!
the same thing is happening on facebook but somehow facebook has blocked the access of those pages in Muslim countries because they dont need more publicity at all like 2 year ago, coz they has sold their shares in market :p
It is a ‘failed stunt’, but it is a failed stunt by the Govt of Pakistan! Not by twitter, and certainly not by facebook or youtube!
Pakistan has foolishly been BANNING facebook, youtube, twitter in 2010, 2011, and now 2012 over this day. As a result all it did was give more attention than it deserved and at the same time made the world take notice of Pakistan’s own stupid priorities and made FUN of us for using religion to justify being so childish and foolish.
Grow up!
It is true. For example if again someone put muhammad things in Facecook(heart of internet) then our stupit authority will again block fb. Why small minded some pakistani people bringing religion in Everything. They are also banning Indian Channels.
Zafar you are 100% wrong. Take this question as an example: what would u do if anyone abuses your father/mother in different styles??? If u love ur mother/father then think about this.
Sir I have a book next to me where I can write abuses against you, your parents, your ancestors, everyone you like. But the PTA will never let you’ll read it.
How does that make you feel? Are you happy knowing I am writing abuses but you cannot read what I write or respond to me???
So that is what the ban does: prevent you from doing anything about it.
book ki example bilkul ghalat di hai.simple si baat hai agar kisi website pe traffic zyda ho ga tu us ki earning zyda ho gi,wo hamarey Rasullullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ki bay-adbi kar rahay hain ,agar hum Twitter pe jai gay tu unhain faida puhunchai gay.kia hum apni chooti si khuahish bhi hum qurban nahi kar saktey, Hadees main aya hai k jis ka mafhoom hai: “tumara Emaan jab tak mukamal nahi ho sakta jab tak maan baap se bhi zyda Rasullullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam se mohabbat nahi kartey”.aur hum yahan facebook aur twitter jesi chooti cheez nahi choor pa rahay.
Man how many times will people explain this to you??? Traffic from Pakistan to facebook is LESS THAN 2%. So by your definition of earnings from traffic, Pakistani users give Facebook LESS THAN $20 million a year (two years ago Facebook made $1.1 billion in revenue).
And because of Facebook growth over time, even if 100% of Pakistanis leave Facebook forever, Facebook will make up that 2% from natural growth in less than three weeks.
Facebook is NOT AT ALL affected by your boycott.
For Twitter, twitter doesn’t even have a working revenue model yet. They have some paid stuff but the target market for the revenue is NOT us right now so if we ban Twitter, they lose nothing at all. Indians are about 2% of Twitter users, we are even much less than that.
Furthermore, Google owns Youtube and there is a lot of material against Islam on Youtube. HAVE YOU PERSONALLY BOYCOTTED ALL OF YOUTUBE?
tumari sari baton ka jawab idhar hai see this link:
http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/18827
aur baat ye nahi k un pe hamarey facebook ya twitter choorney se affect parta hai ya nahi, baat EMAAN ki hai,baat Ezzat Ghairat ki hai jo har musalman k paas honi chiaye as a muslim.jab koi un ki policy k khelaf koi PAGE banai tu wo foran delete kar detay hain aur jis page k against main hazaroon requset hoon wo page wo delete nahi kartey ,phir bhi tumari GHAIRAT nahi jagti.
Think about it. I have a phone at home. Is my faith weakened because someone female calls me? Like a call from my bank to check if I received my cheque book? By reading your link, it seems that the writer’s objection to facebook is similar: he says even if you keep your wall clean, other people post and that will lead to issues. I have a phone yet my faith is not weakened one bit because someone in my neighborhood uses his phone to plan evil with a female. Which is very similar to facebook…
Interestingly, I wonder what the writer thinks of television. So we can have 2 or 3 channels propagating Islam…when cable gives us 80 other channels of news, movies, music videos, etc. Sounds similar to youtube right? And he disapproves of youtube…
And I note that they didn’t say anything at all about deletion of pages praising our Prophet or spreading Islam. Those pages have not been deleted by Facebook. So, again, Facebook is not standing in your way of spreading Islam.
Lastly, I would say
http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC1005-4176
Also I should point out that if it is not an issue of page impressions or any other effect of leaving websites, then people who want to leave those sites should not use that to say how they will “hurt” the sites.
Further more, let me tell you one thing. You say Facebook and twitter help promote people who are anti-Islam? Okay, fine that is your opinion. Here’s the secret: Facebok and Twitter definitely does promote people who are pro-Islam.
Can you tell me how to reach over 500 MILLION non-Muslims today? TV shows? Expensive. articles in magazines? Not everyone reads them. Newspapers? There is no newspaper for 500 million people.
Facebook pages? Free. Groups on Facebook? Free. Writing intelligent bots to post for you on Twitter? Free (plus minor cost of hosting, maybe Rs 3000/month). Facebook (or Google) ads? Very very cheap. You can spend just Rs 300/day and reach millions of people.
Why do you think so many sheikhs preach on Facebook? Why do you think they post videos on Youtube?
— actually its as failed stunt by twitter to get famous like facebook did 2 year ago!! probably twitter failed in their own stunt!!
Actually no, you’re 100% wrong! Everything is not a conspiracy theory.
Why I am unable to browse Facebook on my Qubee????
I think the latest last two twitter trends of Pakistanis:
BLockNatoSupply & ShutupClinton might be the cause of twitter block.
But to such events, its better on govt level govt contact to these social sites head offices to show their concern, and other muslin countries should also be unite and do a good & proper action.
if i am not wrong twitter is working fine with me in Multan. as far as i know multan is still in Pakistan :P
My dear Pakistani brothers,
This is to let you know that the Twitter had material that was un-Islamic and hence, it was decided by the great President, PM and government to block the site in honor of the day of this blasphemous material and remind the country of what we can do to those who perform some actions.
Our government is the people’s government, and to protect the people we will do everything. We have now asked the PTA to create our own internet, that is clean and without un-Islamic content. We will then stop all other websites.
Rooti, Kapra, Makaan aur saaf internet. This is our aim.
Thank you.
Remember us with your votes!
sir ap ki to chittar parade honi chaiye!! :D
aur kindly tell us k ap 3G ka kitna rent lain ge?? :D ;)
when muslim say something they are called terrorist, when they(non muslim) say or do something against islam then they call it freedom of expression. please bycote the twitter and facebook and other anti islam sites for ever to show love for our prophet and islam.
You could’ve made it a bit articulate or look,it earns you a title of less-informed!
First off you should know what caused Facebook to agree not to let the content reach Pakistanis This time!
Then you said
Do you really think chances are minimal or do you think twitter has the best suitable conditions to shout-out the content worldwide,in my view latter is true as More globalized community per person twitter offers and then you should’ve took into account that on twitter Everyone can mention you unlike Facebook.
Peace!
Naa pahle pata tha aur na hi ban k baad , lakin tum Amir atta , tumne yaad dila diya :@ doob maro :@
yh teesra option kion nhn daal dete poll mn ? :@
(comment edited)
I simply want to share my personal experience with all people here. I used to waste atleast an hour a day on FaceBook and Twitter. Now, I donot use Twitter or FaceBook anymore because of such issues. Now I am better utilizing the time which I used to waste on these socalled social networking websites. I give more time to my family, friends, etc. and my personal life has become more happy and productive.
+1
good step Anwar ali mujey aap pe fakhar hai.main ney bhi facebook use karna choor diya tha jab ye ghaitya harkat facebook pe hoi thi aur mujey zara barabar bhi pareshani ya afsoos nahi hoa.
+1 = Anwer
+1 = feel
Superb positive thinking instead to point anyone you cleared your point of view.
Same thinking with on addition:
Key Mohammad say wafa tu nay tu hum teray haan
Yeh jahan cheez ha kiya loh’hu qalam teray haan
Aaah!!!
Kash mujhay iss ka ehsaas ho jai aur iss key qeem’at ka andaza ho jai.
main ney bhi facebook is hi waja se chora tha aur ab twitter bhi is hi awaja se choor raha hoon.
Have you left youtube as well?
Brother Shahid,
You seems to be a reasonable person and I am really surprized to read your reply,
||Have you left youtube as well?
Its public personal opion to leave or stay on any social or blogger site.
What you will reply if I ask you?
When you are leaving ProPakistani?
:)
Words speak ones personality.
— Its public personal opion to leave or stay on any social or blogger site.
Just a straight answer will do. If you leave Facebook because of the content and time waste factor, why not leave other sites, too? Because if you leave one site and not another, I am very curious why.
Brother S.Saleem
Conten and Time wasting both are different factors.
Your curiosity is right but it doesn’t mean that every site is time wasting.
Justice is with you that which site is time wasting and which is not…
Oh and to answer your question
— When you are leaving ProPakistani?
I already have. I no longer post here with my real name because I do not wanted to be associated with the racist (anti-Arab posts every time a story on PTCL is published) and just plain stupid senseless comments every other famous post gets. I do not want my name associated with the commenters.
I appreciate your thinking and words.
I gave an example of PP where is PP is not outstanding site or not wasting site.
We are posting what we are getting from our MEDIA.
We usually show our efficiency to expose some content as we need more traffic and more clicks.
Admin of the site is requestedo consider it.
For All Readers:
On the day of Fatah-e-Makkah, prophot Mohammad s.a.w announced the open forgiveness for entire opponents;
but you recalled some names ABC bin LMO bin XYZ and said that kill them found any where.
They all were the Ghustakh-e-Rasool s.a.w.
All of them were killed but one of them come into the Bait’tullah and got shelter under the clothe of Kaba and hidded with Kaba’s wall and clothe.
The sahabi r.a asked the prophet Muhammad s.a.w about this person that what to do know?
You know what was the answar of Muhammad s.a.w.
Kill him on the spot so that the blood of him will denote the entire Ummah till hereafter that there is no shelter of Ghustakh-e-Rasool even in the Kaba under the clothe.
Brothers and sisters, just close your eyes, and think how we love to our Muhammad s.a.w.
To test the love, see our daily life, our dress, our hair style, our Zahir and Bat’in.
Groom of the Universe, Allah’s love and many more…
Then we don’t need to think about FB or TW or PP or etc.
We pray for them and Ask Allah to bless owners of these sites, users of these sites and bless ProPakistani users.
Say Toba, toba and toba from heart.
And lets we make intention to not make angry our Allah s.w.t and Muhammad s.a.w
Keeping quite against oppression is letting oppression to spread… one day protest is better than no protest at all.. STOP MAKING Such STUPID topics admin!. you shouldn’t have said that!
You idiot who cannot read! the admin is point out that PTA MADE PEOPLE AWARE OF THE CONTEST THIS YEAR!!!
No newspaper headlines were about the contest.
No web ads, no web articles, no radio news, no tv news about the contest. UNTIL THE PTA BANNED TWITTER WE WERE UNAWARE OF ANY CONTEST.
And thanks to their ban, suddenly PTA promoted the contest by making people curious about the ban.
Again here Shahid Bhai,
You have written the right thing but the first statement
||You idiot who cannot read!
Its the public blogger to comment openly but it doesn’t mean to write abuse to anyone even his/her comments are harsh.
Hope you got me. I am actually pointing my self to care other’s comments and reply in polite manner (if one has something to explain).
Unfortunately the commenters on this blog shoot first (blame the author of the blog post) and think later (if at all).
Maybe Umair would like to go burn tires in front of Twitter head offices. That works in Pakistan!
:)
So you have changed your stance. Last time when the same event was conducted on Facebook you had deactivated your page from there and later reactivated after more than 1.5 years. Stance should either remain the same or should be based on facts.
I am never in favor of blocking anything. Neither I deactivated Facebook profile that time and nor I will go to deactivate twitter. All such things are being conducted to ignite us and we in reaction do the same. And moreover the question is why a Muslim will intentionally go to visit such a page or event unless or untill it pops up unintentionally. Why can’t we use the same mediums to preach our teachings, our brotherhood, our peace and love and let them hear and see what we are instead of blocking the sites or burning our own properties.
Why our Islam gets alive and refreshed by blocking of these pages only. We do thousands of miscommitments and wrong deeds which are against the preachings of ALLAH (SWT) and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) but at that time nothing happens to us.
Charity begins at home.
Thakyou propakistani for reminding me about the day!! didnt know before reading the article on your site… now whos at fault ?
You see, Abu Umer? This is the kind of commenter I was talking about.
sajid, the PTA blocked twitter. Everyone went online searching for why they blocked it and discovered it was because of the event. So thank PTA.
-1 sajid
:)
Khuda nay aj taak uss qoum key halat nahi badli
Na ho khiyal jisay khud apni halat kay badlny ka.
Twitter py b Lanat aur
facebook py b Lanat.
Ye hamesha musalmano ko hi target bnaty hn.
PTA inko hamesha kelye block kary.
“Na samjo gy to mit jao gy ay Pakistan walo,
Dastaan tk na rhy gi tmhari dastaano me.”
— Ye hamesha musalmano ko hi target bnaty hn.
I wonder who you think does not make targets of us. Nokia? Cadbury? Ha ha
Iqbal r.a said,
Waza’h main na’sara tu tamada’an main hanood
Yeh musliman haan jihain daikh kar sharmain yahood
Muslims are just like a body.
Kafir kabhi muslim ka bha’la (favour) nai chahay ga.
Uss key apni agra’az wa maqasid haan jo angraiz muslim ko samjh nai aa saqteen…
@Asad
+1000
{[“hum khud ..traasht..hai..sange..meer..hum..wo..nahi
jisse zamana bana gaya”}] wake up muslim
azaan tu ab bhi hote hai masjid ke feza mai aii (shahid) jis zarb se dil hil jate the wo zarb lagana bhol gaye>
I don’t understand these secular cum sick people, just somebody go and ask them that if anybody on internet draw the funny pictures of their parents and family members and disgrace them by saying abusive words, how would they Feel.
Our religion and Hazrat Muhammad S.A.W is worth more than anything, they how you people tolerate such things.
Shame on you people, U r mentally sick like the people who do such extreme things and call Muslims as extremist. Actually what such things are doing is reading our minds that are we still Muslims and has some nuisance against such things and they are planning accordingly to finish Islam from us.
Did anyone notice the Facebook boom in Pakistan after that Draw Cartoon day??
After that day, every this and that guy is now have a facebook account.
I would like to request Administrator to write a something on this please i.e. facebook boom after Draw Muhammad day.
Actually you are right.
Surely if your society is violently offended by people’s opinions and expressions, then it’s a symptom of a problem with your society?
People have a right to express their opinions, whether it be in writing or art. That’s never going to change, and there’s nothing ‘evil’ about it….
If you’re going to aggressivly censor opinions that criticise outdated religious beleifs then you’re really no better than the book burning nazi’s, or the russian communists.