Pakistan has blocked two popular websites due to a controversial competition being held on Facebook on May 20. How has the ban on Facebook and YouTube affected you? Has the block on our accessibility to these sites highlighted the fact that how addicted and dependent we are on social networking websites and forums? How do you plan to pass your time instead now that browsing videos and random profiles is not an option?
The views expressed by the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
ban them permenantly.
where there these sites harm or done such a disgusting act & all Muslim Umah discourage due to it better let these 2 sites r remain blocked for a long period
on the other hand where there is negative issue of these sites there is also positive work of these also well it depends on us on human mentality how the human use the things negatively or positively
no 1 will disturb with it either they work or not these sites remain bloced
It is very depressing that the Government and our informal religious police (an entity which seems to exist in every single one of us) will now decide what information people can and cannot access. If you cannot access information that is against your religion, how will you know that you are following the right path? It would be a truly Utopian world if all we could see were those things which are right and every single thing which we believe is wrong is just blocked out.
It’s the whole approach of don’t fix the problem through dialogue, just wear blinders and ignore it. A better approach would have been for a group of Pakistanis to get together and protest against the content which we find offensive – whether it is content in European newspapers, or on facebook, or wherever else.
Well said Falak!
It is wrong to say that” We are sending the world wrong message” Banning these socio racial, sacriligious sites is the best fitting response.
By the way, Can we understand what kind of messages the world is sending to us by plotting such blesphemous schemes??
Any anwers ?????????????
Thing is that would that ban have any impact on the policies of such websites? Is there any guarantee that such events would not take place future? Anyways the youth has now turned to some constructive and useful websites after this ban.
Salaam,
haha. I love the comments on this site.
And, yes. Banning them was a fantabulous idea. But I doubt its gonna sort out the youth, are youth is way distorted to let petty facebook ban set it straight. But Thumbs up. The comments here are lovely.
Lahore High Court rocks…
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority did the right thing by banning these so called social websites..
Facebook should be banned for all that stuff, for this whole month. This ban will tell us that they are nothing without us. Their earnings will affect alot.
On the other hand i think that i shouldn’t be banned for the life time. No matter what we all say we all are addicted to facebook, youtube etc etc. And banning all those sites isn’t the remedy for this problem.
Today facebook and youtube are blocked, tomorrow they’ll be banning Wikipedia, Google etc etc.
And without Google and Wikipedia my studies are going to kill me. And alot of people are going to be affected because of the ban on Google and Wikipedia (if they ban it).
This is also true that now facebook and youtube are blocked, browsing and surfing are boring for me.
Better to spend your leisure time in Zikar-e-Allah. Nobody will die without Facebook
we must honor every one views, but its moreover very much abashed condition for us that a few cluster is standing opponent to the blockage of aforesaid websites. we must feel remorse for that, at least we must be cherished that we as a group retaliated their fiend behaviour.
Facebook is simple a waste of time.
Whatever is done by the government is good as it showed that they are independent and could make decisions on their own. although the decision is regarding a website still i appreciate it as it has given some signal, when rest of the world is not listening. if facebook administration is disappointed then it should look why it happened in the first place. if they give everything tag of freedom of expression then they really don’t know what is freedom and how to use it.
We can tolerate anything but disrespect to our Prophet (SAW). All other Muslim countries should follow the suit, ban facebook and u tube as this will result into huge financial loss to the two sites which will make them realise their mistake. Its a materialsitic world and that is the only way to make them understand what wrong they have done.
I now realise how wastage of time these sites were. I m glad that these has been banned. As a Muslim nation we should show unity and continue to boycott these sites irrespective of the ban continues or not.
For people who are saying that our youth has been deprived of innovative thoughts and entertainment, for them I would just say that facebook and youtube are not the end. There are more innovative sites on net.
I think it is absolutely correct to ban these sites. Everything has a limit even freedom of speech does.. let alone freedom does have its limits.. You cannot criticize or make fun of anyone’s religion. Every religion is respectable and thus their religious figures should be respected.
My respect for my faith and reverence for my Prophet (PBUH) is far above and important than anything else. The ban on the two websites are very appropriate. In some European countries one is sent to jail if he or she questions “holoucast” but the freedom of expression come into exercise when one objects ridiculing the religious icons of others’ faith. Hypocrites!
I neither watch youtube very often nor do I use facebook, but as a matter of principle we cannot take this approach with regards to internet. The content has to be censored at the individual level.
Pakistan zindabad
office will be boring without fb and youtube,,,, we have no more to do at work now!!
i hope people will now focus on productive activities at home or at work place instead of wasting it on fb and youtube
although i do agree with the fact that it would have sent a strong msg if people themselves took this initiative of not visiting these banned sites yet i am not against it.
i am a regular user of facebook and youtube , but i m sure now i will a good alternative to pass my time which will be constructive.
The sayings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him)
‘He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand;
and if he has not strength enough to do that, then he should do it with his tongue;
and if he has not strength enough to do even that, then he should (at least abhor it) from his heart; and that is the least of faith.”
Sahih Muslim Hadith 79 Narrated by Abu Sa’d al Khudri
Thumbs up to u! Thats what Muslims should do
A timely and wise decision to ban these useless and obnoxious sites. I strongly stand for banning any content that is offensive to Muslims – drawing caricature of our beloved Prophet SW needs to be condemned and sites airing blasphemous content should be permanently blocked.
I
Some would suggest that facebook and youtube have constructive uses as well , bringing communities closer etc. Neverthess, I feel that the non constructive uses are far more common and time-consuming than the constructive ones. Many westerners have pointed out the harmful psychological effects of facebooking- especially on the youth. It has been considered a real addiction for some. It has also adversely affected real relationships ( which are highly interpersocal and not at all based on one or two clicks of a mouse).
I for one would be concentrating on my research now instead of looking at the rosy picture of my “friends’ lives” via facebook.
Well done sana paksitani people were using facebook for fun.
I think they should have blocked the page and not the Whole site….
We are sending a wrong message I believe. Its not the way to protest … the more we react the more we’ll be pushed… We could show our strength with anti-group and already we have 115,000 people in the protest group compared to the 13,000 people in the competition. Islam means peace and Muhammad S.A.W.W taught us tolerance and have we forgotten the story of the lady who threw garbage at him? what if he would protest would she ever be inspired or admire him enough to revert Islam? I have debated on the issue with a few participants of the competition and trust me some of them were convinced and they withdraw. By protesting and showing aggression we are going to look fools and such reaction will create further disharmony amongst the people and will also give hype to anti Islamic forces to push us further… JazakAllah Khair!
Well, to clarify the above comment, even a mild-hearted person like Salahuddin Ayubi never tolerated anyone showing disrespect to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
I totally agree with you Zeeshan, but i have come today to say with the minimal and humble information that i have. Time & people are changed! The example you gave is very true and i do not arguing! but in this age/time we must protest, indeed without showing aggression… for example we should not suppose to blocked/banned the whole facebook but the particular pages/users who are engaged in such things and force facebook admin to set some policies! i did the same thing on deviantart.com; me and some fellow start/ran campaing and force/keep asking/requesting dviantart admin to banned/blocked such users and introduce some policies again them… and give valid reasons to them… after few weeks, all users were banned/blocked and uptil now i’ve not seen any such activity on deviantart. Jazka’ALLAH hu khaira!
Facebook and Youtube should be permanently banned.
We, Pakistanis, are very productive people and hate to waste our time with such things as internet. So I would suggest that for us to be more productive the “government” needs to close all access to the internet…in fact to all electronic media would be more appropriate!
Ban the internet completely.
im so glad tht pakistani muslims for the first time chose not to fight physically, but mentally.. i wish the websites could get banned forever,.,