Facebook and Google in the ring

Facebook vs Google

Google announced Tuesday the launch of a new social network, called Google +, or Google Plus, which aims to take on Facebook. As our sources reported:

Google made a huge announcement this tuesday, launching Google +, or Google Plus, its long-awaited version of a social network to rival Facebook.

Google’s been trying to crack the social market for years, running into false starts with content-sharing services Wave and Buzz. (The former fizzled and the latter set off a privacy complaints that ended with a lawsuit and an FTC settlement.) Many have been waiting for Google’s big push into social since it rolled out its +1 button in March, especially as Facebook gets cozy with its search rival, Microsoft.

And then, today, Google announced +. The site bears a striking resemblance to Facebook, with streaming feeds and specialized groups of friends. In fact, Google + gathers many of the features of existing social networks.

The network has five basic components: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, Instant Uploads and Huddle. It also requires a Google profile, meaning you’ll need to provide Google, at minimum, with a name and a photo.

Circles lets you group your contacts — e.g. friends, work, family. Like Facebook, this features lets you share information with groups of contacts instead of hitting everyone with your latest update at once. Sparks acts like an RSS reader or Facebook news feed, letting you input things you’re interested in and pushing relevant content to you. Hangouts features live group video chats, aiming to foster spontaneous meetings with up to 10 people. You can also alert certain groups of friends when you’re hanging out.

Instant Uploads takes care of the increasingly important mobile aspect of social networking, automatically posting users’ phone pictures and videos to a private album. From there, users can decide if and with whom they want to share their media. You also have the option to add location data to every Google + post.

And Huddle is a group texting feature — similar to Beluga, which Facebook acquired in March — that lets you have a group chat through your phone.

Some analysts are asking whether Google expansion into the social media sphere is a bad move. TechCruch guest contributor Semil Shah asked the same question:

Today’s soft-launch of Google’s new social galaxy, Google+, raises one interesting question: Can Google, a massive, multinational, cash-rich, consumer technology company with multiple successful productivity applications and services, take its dough out of the oven and bake a social network into their bread?

-Jago News-

Facebook Revenue 2009

Facebook has topped the expectations in 2009 by realizing nearly 800 million dollars income last year, ABC News reported referring to two unnamed sources. Insiders also revelaed that the social media community has gained 10 million dollars operating profit last year. The 800 million dollars revenue has far exceeded the company’s expectations.

Facebook – which has almost 500 million registered users now – was started as a closed network of university students in 2004. The social media announced in 2009 that its financial balance has turned to posititive, realizing more income than expenditure. At the same year analysts estimated 500 million dollars of the company’s earnings. Although, privacy scandals have cracked the company’s reputation plenty of times recently, the number of registered users and advertisers are steadily growing.

Experts believe, the success in Facebook’s advertising platform is that the large general advertising campaigns can find their ways to their target groups just like smaller, highly specialized marketing campaigns.

Facebook regularly rejects buying and investing offers, while the business world is waiting for the company’s introduction in the stock markets. However, this move is unlikely now, because Facebook is able to finance its agressive expansion from its own revenues. Besides the founders, the company’s shareholders are Microsoft, the Russian Digital Sky Technologies, the Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka-Shing and other venture capital groups.

Facebook Bann poll result

Facebook being restore , despite of those controversial pages still available on that web. If facebook do not care for any Muslim sentiments why such strong authorities are permitting to open such a web.

Propakistani, holds several polls and every time resulted majority favors to block FACEBOOK forever inPakistan. PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ) ignoring such a fact of internet users need, unblocks facebook.

Despite thinking that this type of blockage will give boost in opening more social networking websites of Pakistan, and this could bring revenue in Pakistan.

What you say regarding this?

Salmaan Taseer predicted

Facebook blockage , give boost and increase the rate in founding new social networking web sites . Regarding this , Salmaan Taseer posted a tweet on twitter “Short time ago I predicted the opening of social networking sites.good sense has prevailed all round.Hum maidan khali nahin chore sakte”.

This might be a signal from Governor Punjab that he is interested to launch his social networking site soon. However, blocking Facebook could give rise to social networking portals in Pakistan. Whats your prospect?

Youtube

The Ministry for Information Technology and Telecom has lifted a ban on Youtube. However, social networking website Facebook will remain blocked in line with the order of Lahore High Court.

The LHC had directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the site till May 31 over blasphemous content.

Federal Secretary Najeebullah Malik told Geo that PTA was asked to ensure the blockage of links carrying sacrilegious drawings.

He said that the government would implement any order given by the court about Facebook in future too.

PTA chairman Dr Yasin said that Youtube would also be restored immediately after receiving orders from the information ministry.

Wake Up

Why would Someone ridicule us and our beliefs?

It has been a tradition that when somebody ridicules us, we just start blaming ourselves,  our system, our lack of unity, our bad morals,  lack of belief in religion and all the evils in our society….. only making our enemy’s work easier !!!

Do we even realize that whoever ridicules us, is merely a dreamer, an inactive coward, someone who knows his lack of strength to take any physical action against us.
How Come Iqbal Knew All of it in the Last Century?

Iqbal’s concept of “KHUDI” (Self-Respect)  is an amazing phenomenon to deal with such situation for present day Muslims. خودی کو کر بلند اتنا کہ  ہر تقدیر سے  پہلے .. خدا بندے سے خود پوچھے بتا تیری رضا کیا ہے
KHUDI is seen by him as an elevator for human spirit so much so that they can even decide their fate through its best utilization…. Khudi or Self-Respect is what we are lacking today. We generalize ourselves as a morally bankrupt nation and always have countless examples on our fingertips to prove that.
Let me ask one simple question… Who has given this right to berate ourselves? [ Isn’t it us only?] … Each one of us has a duty to be a good citizen  and when we don’t fulfill that duty, why do we think that every other being is like us too?
Time To Decide:

WE have to decide now that “ Do we respect ourselves , as mentioned in the words of Iqbal”? …. Because if we don’t , then we will have to accept what others say about us and do to us.
The pictures, cartoons and insulting remarks are increasing day by day , only because we are getting used to them…. AND that is where lurks the real danger !!!

Time to Be United :

An immediate action can be CONDEMNING any such hurtful act, which is against our religious beliefs peacefully. We can give them an impression that nobody believes them and make them believe that they are wasting their time and effort to berate us… SHOW OUR SELF-RESPECT !!!! But, we need to do this  as a unified force. We should neither deviate from our focus (i.e.,condemning them) nor getting into petty issues (i.e., our own lackings)… because this is what they want us to indulge in.
The real strength is shown in UNITY … and in this case, ONLINE UNITY !!!!

Use their own weapon to fight them back !!!!!

As in the words of Iqbal : ایک ہوں مسلم حرم کی پاسبانی کے لئے … نیل کے ساحل سے لیکر تا بہ خاک کاشغر

Facebook Banned

By Saad Mustafa Warraich, Karachi – Pakistan

I had been banned from Facebook and my account had been disabled a night before Facebook was banned in Pakistan. Before all this happened, I visited the blasphemous page “Draw Muhammad Day” and the content on the page hurt me badly.

Once again a certain group of westerners called it the “freedom of expression” and went on to show extremism – something they always verbally disassociate themselves from.

As a response to this lunacy, I thought it best to find out how they respond to others’ right of freedom of expression – I created an Adolf Hitler page right away and it read, “To all those who think they can ridicule Islam in the name of freedom of expression and yet punish those who speak of the genius of Hitler”.

The comment on the wall read, “Let’s hit them where it hurts them the most”. Further I added some photos of the Fuhrer, Nazi Party and the Italian Footballer Paolo Di Canio who was banned and fined by FIFA two years ago for performing the “controversial” Roman Salute which according to him gave him a sense of belonging to his people.

Within an hour tens of people joined the Hitler page which was named “H | T L E R”. The very next time I tried to log in I found out that my profile had been disabled for ‘violation of Facebook Regulations’.

Facebook’s reply for my inquiry was as following (also shown in above screenshot):

Hi Saad,

After reviewing your situation, we have determined that your violated our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. One of Facebook’s main priorities is the comfort and safety of our users.

We do not tolerate hate speech. Targeting people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or disease is a serious violation of our standards and has resulted in the permanent loss of your account.

We will not be able to reactivate your account for any reason.  This decision is final.

Kimmie
User Operations,
Facebook

Now how is it that Hitler is termed as the most evil person in the history of mankind while those that bomb Muslims, commit heinous crimes in their countries, ridicule their Prophet and Quran and as a result hurt the sentiments of 1.2 billion Muslims are hailed as heroes? And I wonder why the victims of Holocaust are more important than victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Despite the protest of a large number of Muslims, Facebook has not removed the blasphemous page from the website.

Facebook response

According the statement issued by Facebook their policy is to withhold such content in countries where it is controversial. The statement specifically says that we do not remove Nazi content from Facebook because it is illegal only in a few countries. As two-faced statements go, this one takes the prize. Perhaps before issuing the statement the Facebook did not realise that words like “Adolf Hitler”, “Sieg Heil” and “Nazi” are not allowed to be used on Facebook to create new pages.

And if all this and the removal of Hitler page and the permanent deactivation of my profile isn’t enough, here is a testament to Facebook’s vile hypocrisy. The statement issued by Facebook on 20 May says, “We strongly believe that Facebook users have the freedom to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content, groups or pages that speak out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.”

While, in another instance, Facebook replied me in entirely different way. Excerpt and screenshot is given above.

Now these two conflicting statements speak volumes about the discrimination by the Facebook. It simply means that Facebook through its official statement to global media wants the world to believe that they are the torchbearers of freedom of expression and allow everyone to speak their minds out. On the other hand the face that individuals like me get to see is a much horrible one. It talks about hate and intolerance and all forms of so-called equality and unshakable resolve. While Facebook is portraying itself as the silent and innocent onlooker for the entire world, I wonder what gives them the right to remove a major chunk of my life from the web.

I don’t think Facebook should come up with any clarification statements for the Muslim world over what happened. It is clearer than crystal that as long as we are labelled as extremists, we are not going to enjoy the equal rights in this world. And those that are trying to play God love to label us that. While reporting the Facebook ban in Pakistan in different articles, guardian.co.uk mentions the brutality of Pakistan Army in Swat whileYahoo thinks it’s necessary to unveil Al-Qaida’s plans of attacks on Danish and Dutch football teams. It is a blatant attempt to criticize Pakistan for placing the ban, link the country to extremism and terrorism and thereby justifying this sacrilegious act of Facebook users.

Facebook

Majority of the public all around world is unknown from , why Facebook banned in Pakistan . Maybe Government of Pakistan (through its teleocm regulator PTA) will not have to convince the people of Pakistan about the massive ban on internet, as 82 percent of voters (of a poll) are already asking for permanent or partial ban on Facebook. Merits mentioning, we have some local voices against the crackdown too.

However, global media is looking into this matter with entirely different perspective. They are taking this ban as censorship and mass scale violation of basic human rights.

This apparently is a clear indication that either government adopted a bad policy or maybe not in the right way.

Prophets’ Drawings [PBUH] were enough to ban Facebook (according to Pakistan’s law) but luckily, Pakistan had a chance to convince the world that this ban was not only due to the drawings, but due to Facebook’s discriminatory behavior and its apparent support for the Drawing content.

We have discussed before on how facebook didn’t listen to over 100,000 complaints while on other hands banned holocaust denial page in 20 minutes.

This point was never preached by the government; resultantly Facebook is enjoying the heights of media hype even after it violated its own Terms of Services.

How funny is it that Facebook wanted Government of Pakistan for contact before banning it in the country, while ignoring the fact that it didn’t bother to hear the pleas of thousands of Muslims.

Why is this so that Pakistani is always brought to knees? But this time – it was lack of knowledge/reasoning instead of a real sin.

Just as an example, watch following video of Dr. Yasin’s interview for “Aaj Karman Khan kay Sath”. Chairman said it was Ministry and ultimately the Court that ordered the ban – he sounded like, PTA had nothing to do with all this. He failed to defend that this ban was productive (if it really was).

Also note how Mr. Kamran Khan was exaggerating things in his traditional manner, without knowing the fact that protests in other Muslim countries was also on the rise.

Youtube Blocked in Pakistan for hurting Muslims

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all concerned operators in Pakistan to block website www.YouTube.com till further orders. These directions have been issued in compliance with Pakistan Penal Code and the urge of masses against blasphemous drawings of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH].

Authority said that it has banned about 450 URLs besides YouTube and Facebook, which had inappropriate content.

People of the country think that this large scale protest should be escalated at diplomatic level to best produce the results.

PTA has established a Crisis Cell to monitor all such contents. PTA’s helpline toll free number 0800-55055 and email complaint@pta.gov.pk can be used to notify all similar URLs where such objectionable material is placed.

Here is an email Micronet sent to its customers:

Dear Valued Customer,

Micronet has blocked access to www.youtube.com in compliance with recent orders of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for containing blasphemous material and no-action by Youtube to remove the objectionable hate material from its web site.

This access would remain blocked till further orders by PTA.

Best Regards

Facebook hurt Muslims

We have witnessed internet users in Muslim world adopting different strategies in reaction to “Draw Mohammad” (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa-aal-hi-Wasallam). Millions of Muslims are protesting against the intents of a community on Facebook that is planning to conduct a contest for Prophet Mohammad’s Drawings.

Background of Draw Day

To discuss it further, it is necessary to understand how and why this Draw Day came into existence.

The Idea to make funny cartoons of Prophet Mohammed [PBUH] came from a Seattle Cartoonist Molly Norris who thought of this campaign in reaction to Comedy Central’s decision to censor an episode of South Park with depictions of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH].

South Park was threatened by Muslims if it showcased Prophet Mohammad’s depictions.

Supporters of Draw Mohammad day say that the campaign is in reaction to killing threats by Muslims; however, they ignore the fact that Muslims’ threats were actually the reaction of South Part depictions. If Draw Mohammad Day supports want to react on reactions, then this chain is not going to stop anytime soon.

Later, on 27th April after a wave of anger from Muslims around the world, she decided to withdraw this activity justifying that she didn’t intend to hurt or disgrace some particular religion.

As always there is a third party to take advantage of a situation so here as well. A page was created on Facebook to continue the similar activity. Owner identity is unknown. The page created even more response than the original activity since page owners put completely disgracing sketches on it.

Supposedly and apparently, admins of this page, allegedly the jewish, created hundreds of groups and pages in order to help removing that page. This advertised the page even in thousand more way in result.

Freedom of Speech and Mohammad’s Depictions

Many argue over this fact that depicting Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] is their basic human right, given to masses by the law of many countries. But, this freedom of speech comes with limitations – Wikipedia Notes:

Freedom of speech in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and by many state constitutions and state and federal laws.

There are exceptions to these general protection, including the Miller test for obscenity, child pornography laws, speech that incites imminent danger, and regulation of commercial speech such as advertising.

Within these limited areas, other limitations on free speech balance rights to free speech and other rights, such as protection from imminent or potential violence against particular persons (restrictions on fighting words), or the use of untruths to harm others (slander). Distinctions are often made between speech and other acts which may have symbolic significance.

Now for those who are depicting Prophet Mohammad [PBUH], they clearly know that this will create hatred, mass violence and worst possible impact on Muslims’ feelings.

How Muslims are Reacting?

• Some go to said Fan page and they abuse the owners and non-Muslims there
• Some go to Fan page in question and argues on different topics giving their logics to prove the Fan Page unnecessary and indecent
• Some users are creating their Fan-Pages either opposing the fan page in question or otherwise for Prophet Mohammad praise (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa-aal-hi-Wasallam)
• There are people who are ignoring the situation but are feeling really bad in their hearts, and are unable to do anything
• There are people who are just not only ignoring all the happenings but they are not even concerned about the outcomes
• There are people who are sad over the incident but accepting it as they can’t do anything

Facebook’s Role in Promoting Draw Day [Allegations]

Facebook, allegedly, is supporting the Draw Day, and here are our arguments:

• Facebook is governed under its Terms of Services. Item 3.7 of Facebook TOS says “You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence”
• “Draw Mohammad Day” was reported by at least 35,000 Facebook users, however, page is still live – giving the page a direct support (while it is spreading hatred – a violation of Facebook TOS)
• During the campaign, Facebook is banning pages created by Muslims against Jews. In this one example, Facebook banned a Page with-in 20 minutes of its reporting by jews

The people from all over the world have reported the page but even after thousands of reports, Facebook hasn’t removed the page, giving its indirect support for the cause.

For instance one may think that it may be Facebook itself! And why not, while controversy will result in clicks, impressions, visits to this page making them earn more as well as the creation of hundreds of other new pages and groups with lot more activity as an investment for future.

Facebook is bone of contention: Because its only the Facebook that could create such an impact. With power, there was responsibility on Facebook, which it never met.

If Facebook had banned the Draw Mohammad page, in early days – none of this could have happened.

What will happen on Draw Day?

On the 20th, people will post pictures on Blogger, LiveJournal, wordpress.com, vox.com, TypePad, Flickr, Picasa, imgur, yfrog, twitpic, and of course, on their own blogs and in videos on Youtube and elsewhere. But again, Facebook is the root cause.

Why Draw Day is Worst than Previous Blasphemous Acts?

This instance of blasphemy is not like what it had happened before in Sweden and Norway. We know that there are websites that spreads blasphemous content across the web.

But, in this instance, Web Giant Facebook is part of the game, and while Facebook has roots to each corner of the world, you can calculate the scale of blasphemy on May 20^th, 2010.

What Best we can do?

Unity, under one leader!

Large scale ridicule on May 20^th will ignite worldwide riots and unrest. Even worst, anti-Islam elements now have found a way to tease Muslims.

As initial response: Pakistan government has reacted and banned said Fan Page (only one URL), under Pakistan Penal Code, article 295 and 298 that is related to blasphemy law.

Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom decides on what to ban and not to, based on the rules of the land.

It merits mentioning here that MoIT has already banned around 8 million pages on internet (As per Jang News) that has any in-appropriate content and which comes under blasphemy.

On 20th, MoIT will ban as much URLs as possible.

But, let’s go bigger – governments and Media from Muslim countries must unite at this time.

This war can’t be won on roads and battlefields; instead a strategic media campaign is needed to make the western world realize that they are acting in uncivilized manner. It is them who are creating unrest and doing extremist activities.

To Boycott or Not to Boycott

There are opinions for and against boycotting the Facebook. There are people who think boycotting the Facebook is a form of protest – to make the Facebook administration realize their biased strategy, while others think they will stay on Facebook and will fight on the platform.

Article imported from Pro-Pakistani.

Whats your response ?