Blasphemous content: Facebook official meets Pak interior minister

ISLAMABAD A senior Facebook official met Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday to discuss a demand that the social media platform should remove blasphemous content or be blocked in the country, where it has more than 33 million users.

Khan met Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president dealing with global public policy, and discussed various steps and actions being taken to remove blasphemous content, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The meeting came after a Pakistani anti-terror court sentenced a man to death for comments on Facebook that were deemed blasphemous.

The interior ministry quoted Khan as saying that the Muslim ‘Ummah’ (brotherhood) was “greatly disturbed” and had serious concerns over the misuse of social media platforms to spread blasphemous content. “Nothing is more sacred to us than our religion and our holy personalities,” he said.

Khan appreciated the understanding shown by Facebook and the cooperation extended to Pakistan on these issues. Pakistan believes in freedom of expression but that shouldn’t include insulting Islam or fomenting religious tensions, he added.

Facebook described the meeting as “constructive” and said it had raised its concerns over recent court cases, according to an email cited by Reuters.