Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his solidarity with the French in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebro terrorist attack by reminding us that he had stood up to a Pakistani who wanted his neck for not censoring content about the Prophet Mohammed the man felt was offensive. (TechTimes, January 10, 2015, by Aaron Mamilt)
But Zuckerberg soon found himself on the defensive in the face of charges that Facebook was in the business of censorship. His critics named a number of instances, including the banning of breastfeeding photos and a post by a Pakistani actor questioning the value of controversial speech. (The Guardian, January 15, 2015, by Stuart Dredge)
Facebook said the comments by the actor were removed erroneously and moved to correct the error. Yet as Mathew Ingram of GigOm, January 12, 2015, writes, Facebook has removed important posts by dissidents in Syria and China and has a spotty record of defending free speech in Turkey, Pakistan and Russia.
In the meantime, Facebook announced it would issue a warning every time it posts graphic content, mostly violent, in its News Feed so that users can opt to skip it. Sexual content will still be excluded and not included in the new warning procedure. (PandoDaily, January 13, 2015, by Nathaniel Mott)