Political and Religious Controversy on Facebook
Posted by Nick O'Neill on September 10th, 2007 1:00 AMThe New York Times has published an article regarding a highly controversial group on Facebook. The group denounces Islam and as of this posting has 760 members. The groups states the following:
The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear. Heaven and hell are fables, prayer is a waste of time, and angels and jinn are obviously mythology. This is not a group against Muslims. They have it bad enough. If you doubt that go to Palestine. If you hate Muslims or are here to harrass them or promote your religion, go away. Muslims can be and usually are peaceful and respectful.
There is now a number of other groups that have been created in protest of Facebook’s decision to allow this group to remain. One of the groups has over 58,000 members. This is by no means the first politically or religiously controversial group on Facebook but it is now getting significant coverage. The group is set up in support of atheism.
According to the New York Times article, Facebook temporarily deleted the group creator’s account but has since reinstated it. The members that are petitioning the group are threatening to leave Facebook permanently. While that may not have a significant impact on Facebook’s growth, it is a large statement. What do you think? Should Facebook delete the group?
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Further, giving in like this would set a poor precedent. "If you dislike what someone says, just complain loud enough and we'll get rid of it." That's not something I want to see on Facebook any more than absolutely necessary.
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They've set a hard-to-follow precedent for themselves. I guess they hadn't expected it to be so high-profile, and now they lose either way.
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If they delete this one, they have their work cut out to delete the hundreds of anti-jewish, anti-christian, anti-whatever groups.
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This is what "Free Speech" is about!
This is what "User-centric-commentary" is about;like-minded people coming together to confer on their opinions.
If any group wishes to withdraw in protest, whether they are 58,000-strong or 580,000-strong, they are free to do so. That is what capitalism is all about.
Facebook will lose FAR MORE users if they cave-in to this pressure.
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HOWEVER, This post is not completely accurate. The name of the group is "F**K Islam." I don't know about you guys, but when someone says "F**k you," it is not to have a "meaningful discussion." The fact that this post leaves that little detail says a lot about the bias in the article. Without knowing the name of the group, one imagines the fuss is irrational. In actuality, with a name like "F**K Islam," the tone of the group is already set to be aggressive and potentially hateful.
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I'm actually encouraged by those moslem, they defend their religion from the attack, not like us who just sit idly, even if they want to defend their freedom of speech, they can at least change the 'f*ck' word to something else less offensive, may be Facebook should've banned such word.
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Freedom is lined by the rights of others.
Think logically.. This is not Freedom.. This is a crime.
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of course the group must be shut down because this isn't free speech , this is insult and cruelty under the name of freedom, and it doesn't mean i can insult or hurt anybody, just because I'm free to do whatever i want.
look, we love our religion , and we feel offended when someone like this loser 'variable' say something cruel and abusive about it.
And by the way in a lot of protests groups , we say that they must delete any group that offends any religion including the F*** Christianity group not just the F*** Islam , because we are all brothers whether you are a Muslim , a Christian or a Jew, we all do believe in God.
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At the same time, I must admit that banning this group while allowing the other hate groups to stay would be a blatant double standard. Certainly the rules of any community should be consistent, not catering to the needs of a selct few.
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