The Pakistani government temporarily blocked Facebook and YouTube due to what it describes as sacrilegious content. A Facebook group encouraging the submission of images of Muhammad ignited protests throughout Pakistan, leading to a ruling that blocks the social network until May 31. Facebook responded to the incident with a cautious statement, while a Facebook group opposing the original group is attracting attention.

The Pakistani government temporarily blocked in-country access to YouTube May 20, a day after barring Facebook, and accused both Websites of sacrilege, following protests across Pakistan in reaction to a Facebook group titled, “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!”

That Facebook group asked users to draw and submit images of the Prophet Muhammad on May 20. “We are not trying to slander the average Muslim, it’s not a Muslim/Islam hate page,” the group’s moderator wrote. “We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Muhammad depictions that we’re not afraid of them.”

Some 99,754 people had clicked to “Like” the Facebook group by the afternoon of May 20. In Pakistan, however, anger over the depictions of the prophet—forbidden by Islamic code—led to the blocking of not only Facebook, but also YouTube for a few hours. Read the rest of this entry »