This isn't surprising, but is is disappointing -- and perfectly understandable, considering the devout wishes of the people at Facebook to avoid being killed by religious nuts. The real solution here is to decentralize to the point where Facebook (and similar entities) don't really have much say in the matter. I really hope something comes of Diaspora; until then, there are still plenty of non-Facebook places to post Mohammed pictures.
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#12If even one person at Facebook was threatened with violence for not taking down the pages, I think that it would be irresponsible and dumb to not meet those demands given the track record of SOME parts of the Muslim religion. The fact is I would be offended if Facebook didn't do this and I was an employee of Facebook.
FYI, positions like yours are exactly why these groups get created.
I am not saying that they are not important groups so you must be confused. I think they're important and speak a ton about what should be allowed - but Facebook isn't distributed, there are a group of people at Facebook that could be harmed physically and do not want to take such a risk.
That may be an excellent point for why Facebook (and similar services) need to be distributed to protect the Internet's free speech prerogative. It may be important to have free speech, but it also can be stupid to risk harm to innocent programmers, businessmen, and the like. Maybe as a whole if they decide they want to promote such a thing - fine, but they are not going against free speech if they don't want to take the risk of promoting that topic.
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#13Facebook has a track-record of pulling racially / religiously offensive pages. They got rid of some Italian Neo-Nazi's a few years back, and some anti-semetic stuff late last year. Regardless of the stance on free speech, pictures of Mohammed are offensive to Muslims. Given their previous policy, I don't think this is any surprise or should get any analysis beyond the attention paid to prior examples . . .
It is very dangerous to equate "Everybody Draw Mohammed" with neo-nazi's and anti-semites. In the case of the neo-nazis, they consistently threaten to attack and kill innocent people. In the case of Islamic Fundamentalists, it is the ones who draw Mohammed who are being threatened. Facebook has every right to control the content on their site, and if this content were created out of irrational hatred, I would agree with their decision. But the context here is a group who are trying to manipulate their detractors by threat of force, and Facebook is allowing them to do it.
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#14More reason to hope facebook goes down in flames, and the sooner the better.
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#15Facebook can decide what they do and do not allow to be posted on their website. You can post whatever you want on Facebook, but they have every right to take it down. I can certainly see why they pulled this page.
Yes, corporate censorship based on shareholder considerations is still ethically acceptable to some people. People who question those ethics may be in the minority, but lock-step lassez faire is hardly a universal truth.
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#16Moderator should kill this now. It's only going to turn into a stupid religious argument.
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#18The world is a much smaller place these days. Simply drawing a religious figure or even making fun of that figure does not give anyone the right to start chopping of each others heads or otherwise hunting them down and killing them. Everyone has a right to their own beliefs but given how interconnected we are we have to figure out how to live with each other. That means Muslims have to be more tolerant too.
Given all the bad press Facebook has generated lately, I'm not surprised they took it down. However, taking a stand here might have been somewhat redeeming on some level. I hope they bring it back.
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#19Moderator should kill this now. It's only going to turn into a stupid religious argument.
Most articles are killed because users flag them, not because of a single admin doing things. You know, to head off the whole "Paul Graham's been cowed by Islamists" argument before it starts.
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#20Facebook can decide what they do and do not allow to be posted on their website. You can post whatever you want on Facebook, but they have every right to take it down. I can certainly see why they pulled this page.
Yes, corporate censorship based on shareholder considerations is still ethically acceptable to some people . People who question those ethics may be in the minority, but lock-step lassez faire is hardly a universal truth.
You've injected a premise into this argument that the original commenter never asserted (that Facebook is acting in defense of shareholder value, and for no other reason). You've damaged your credibility.