At Pakistan’s behest, Facebook removed ‘blasphemous’ content

FACEBOOK HAS removed 85 per cent ‘blasphemous’ material at the request of Pakistan, the government Monday informed a top court. Interior Secretary Arif Khan in a report to the Islamabad High Court said that Facebook is blocking blasphemous content on the social networking site.

The High Court was hearing a case about the prevalence of ‘sacrilegious contents’ on social media. The court earlier ordered the government to take action against anti-islam content.

“Facebook is already complying and has taken down about 85 per cent content we pointed out. Banning Facebook is not the solution,” he said. He informed the courtthatthreesuspectshaveben arrested for their alleged involvementinpublishing‘blasphemous’ content on social media.

The Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said a team was active against online‘blasphemous’contentandso far 40 such pages were blocked.

He said Facebook had agreed to their demand to block such content. The judge Shaukat Siddiqui praised government for hosting a meeting of 27 Muslim countries last week to address the issue of online ‘blasphemy’.

However, he expressed anger that Pakistan failed to summon the ambassadors of the countries from where the ‘blasphemous’ material was uploaded.

The interior secretary informed the court that it was complex issue due to local laws of each country but Pakistan’s embassy in Washington was in touch with the US government on the issue.

The court adjourned the hearing till March 31 and ordered concerned departments of the Pakistan government to submit a report. PTI