Censorship of Facebook

Censorship of Facebook has occurred because of the open nature of Facebook; several countries have interfered with or banned access to it, including Syria,^[1] China,^[2] Iran^[3] and the United Kingdom.^[4]

Censorship by country

Australia

Facebook has 10 million Australian users - almost half the population - and requires people to state at sign-up that they are at least 13 years of age. But, because there is currently no way to formally enforce the age limit, in July 2011 Australia began considering giving parents access to their children's pages, requiring proof of age at sign-up, and increasing the age limit to 18.^[5]

Bangladesh

The Awami League-led government of Bangladesh announced a surveillance campaign directed at Facebook and other social network websites for postings that are considered blasphemous. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed the establishment of an Internet monitoring committee with the help of Bangladesh's intelligence services. Previously the government has been blocking websites. Religious political parties and groups have been protesting blasphemous posts by bloggers that have resulted in 8 deaths at the time of the proposal. Blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was stabbed to death on 15 February 2013. National riots over country's war crimes trials have killed 56 people between 19 January 2013 and 2 March 2013.^[6][7][8]

China

In Mainland China, Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots^[2] because Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network.^[9] Some Chinese users also believed that Facebook would not succeed in China after Google China's problems.^[10] The popular Renren social network (formerly Xiaonei) has many features similar to Facebook, and complies with PRC Government regulations regarding content filtering.

Egypt

Facebook was blocked for a few days in Egypt during the 2011 Egyptian protests.^[11]

Iran

After the 2009 election in Iran, the website was banned because of fears that opposition movements were being organized on the website.^[3]

Mauritius

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) of Mauritius, ordered Internet Service Providers(ISPs) of the country to ban Facebook on immediate effect, on the 8th November 2007 because of a fake profile page of the Prime Minister. Access to Facebook was restored on the next day. ^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Morocco

On February 5, 2008, Fouad Mourtada, a citizen of Morocco, was arrested for the alleged creation of a faked Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco.^[17][18]

Syria

The Syrian government explained their ban by claiming the website promoted attacks on authorities.^[1][19] The government also feared Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks on Facebook.^[1] Facebook was also used by Syrian citizens to criticize the government of Syria, and public criticism of the Syrian government is punishable by imprisonment.^[1] Syria claims that they do not want to have a prominent website created by a Jew to have presence in the country.

Tajikistan

In November 2012, Tajikistan blocked access to Facebook in response to comments posted online, spreading “mud and slander” about President Imomali Rakhmon and various other officials.^[20]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom on April 28, 2011, the day before the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, a number of politically motivated Facebook groups and pages were removed or suspended from the website as part of a nationwide crackdown on political activity. The groups and pages were mostly concerned with opposition to government spending cuts, and many were used to organize demonstrations in a continuation of the 2010 UK student protests.^[21][22][23] The censorship of the pages coincided with a series of pre-emptive arrests of known activists.^[24] Amongst the arrestees were a street theater group planning an effigy beheading performance in opposition to the monarchy, whose members included a 66-year-old professor of anthropology,^[25] and five people dressed as zombies who were drinking tea in Starbucks at the time of the arrest.^[24]

References