Free Speech Issues for Facebook
posted by: Vlad Akilov
From a general point of view, Facebook is nothing more than a space that allows college aged students (and others) to communicate with one another. But anytime there is communication, there are sure to be some problems. Most recently, Facebook is faced with an issue that is based around free speech. While you may think that this would be easy enough to resolve, nothing could be further from the truth.
The problem at this time is a group of approximately 750 people who have organized against Islam. Even though the group does not say anything too harmful, they have definitely made it well known what they are all about. The group says: “The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear.” To some people this may not be a huge deal, but as you can imagine, many others are taking great offense to this statement.
Although this group has only been around for just about a month, many reactions have taken place. In fact, as of recently, nearly 60,000 Facebook members had become part of a group with a simple mission. Either Facebook removes the anti-Islam group, or they are going to leave once and for all. While 60,000 members may not mean a lot to Facebook, it is safe to say that they do not want to be faced with problems like this. Not only does it mean a loss of members, but it also looks bad in the public eye.
Facebook has yet to comment on how they will handle this situation, but one day last week the group was disabled. The organizer of the group explained: “Facebook briefly deleted my account, and I assumed they did so because of the group, but they reinstated the account and told me that it was a mistake of some sort.”
The question of what action Facebook will take is still up in the air. They have a few options in front of them, and need to make the right decision after weighing all the facts and figures. Either way, it is obvious at this point that a large group of people are going to be quite angry.
