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Other => Politics & Society => Topic started by: Wilikon on May 23, 2014, 06:49:05 PM



Title: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Wilikon on May 23, 2014, 06:49:05 PM

At least five times this month, a Pakistani bureaucrat who works from a colonial-era barracks in Karachi, just down the street from the former home of his country’s secularist founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, asked Twitter to shield his compatriots from exposure to accounts, tweets or searches of the social network that he described as “blasphemous” or “unethical.”

All five of those requests were honored by the company, meaning that Twitter users in Pakistan can no longer see the content that so disturbed the bureaucrat, Abdul Batin of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority: crude drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, photographs of burning Qurans, and messages from a handful of anti-Islam bloggers and an American porn star who now attends Duke University.

The blocking of these tweets in Pakistan — in line with the country-specific censorship policy Twitter unveiled in 2012 — is the first time the social network has agreed to withhold content there. A number of the accounts seemed to have been blocked in anticipation of the fourth annual “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” on May 20.

This censorship comes as challenges to Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy law have become increasingly deadly, amid a flurry of arrests, killings and assassination attempts on secularists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/twitter-agrees-to-block-blasphemous-tweets-in-pakistan.html?_r=1



Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: bryant.coleman on May 24, 2014, 04:27:20 AM
Imagine headlines like these: Pakistani non-Muslim sentenced to death for blasphemous tweet. Twitter should rather stop its operation in Pakistan, and move to more civilized nations instead.


Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Wilikon on May 27, 2014, 03:04:45 PM
Imagine headlines like these: Pakistani non-Muslim sentenced to death for blasphemous tweet. Twitter should rather stop its operation in Pakistan, and move to more civilized nations instead.

Or this...

https://i.imgur.com/HIbOC7c.png

http://www.dawn.com/news/1108900/woman-stoned-to-death-outside-lahore-high-court



Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Jcw188 on May 27, 2014, 03:32:56 PM
This is like how Google caved to Chinese demands some years ago.  Later they finally realized it was a losing battle, they could never make CHina happy so they just pulled out I believe.  All these companies do something to make a quick buck instead of having any sort of code of conduct, which is a shame. 


Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Slab Squathrust on May 28, 2014, 12:07:49 AM
This is like how Google caved to Chinese demands some years ago.  Later they finally realized it was a losing battle, they could never make CHina happy so they just pulled out I believe.  All these companies do something to make a quick buck instead of having any sort of code of conduct, which is a shame. 

Well it is their main job to make money for their shareholders.  However, as you mentioned with google, it may make more financial sense to just leave the country if the demands become excessive.   


Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Divinespark on May 28, 2014, 08:29:27 AM
A shameless capitulation in the face of intolerance

What's next?


Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: Snail2 on May 28, 2014, 11:32:31 AM
What next? Well, if you hurt their beliefs you have to go to a Twitter certified stone merchant where you can buy the prescribed amount of proper quality stones (they will accept all major credit cards too and finance is also available) and then in the presence of an appointed Twitter official you have stone yourself to death :).


Title: Re: Twitter Agrees To Block “Blasphemous” Tweets In Pakistan (Now Sharia-compliant)
Post by: bryant.coleman on May 28, 2014, 12:58:21 PM
This is like how Google caved to Chinese demands some years ago.  Later they finally realized it was a losing battle, they could never make China happy so they just pulled out I believe.  All these companies do something to make a quick buck instead of having any sort of code of conduct, which is a shame. 

China is a too lucrative a market to ignore. Even if the Twitter CEO would object to the censoring, its shareholders will be absolutely fine with it, as long as the revenues are flowing from China. Still... I don't understand why they pulled out of China.  ;D