Blocking Facebook
Well, here's a newsflash for everyone it's not just Facebook that contains such things, it can be found all over the Internet. So it begs the question, when will the Internet be banned in Bangladesh?
It's quite possible for a friend in England to download some objectionable material and send it to me over my mobile phone. I guess we'll be losing those as well soon.
Let's hope nobody says anything controversial anytime soon in a face to face discussion the government will ban speech as well.
Of course, what this episode really teaches everyone is that, if somebody says or does something you don't like, you shouldn't try to reason with them and make them see sense. Instead you should simply shout very loudly and hope that the insulting is drowned out. But all that does is sweep the problem under the carpet it still remains.
It seems people have missed something Facebook is the medium that has been causing problems, but it's also the medium that could help to solve them. But surely reasoned debate using Facebook would have more of an impact than a blanket ban on the website!
If anything the ban will do more harm than good. To westerners it will be perceived as a breach of the freedom of speech and freedom to protest governments that put the shackles on these things are never looked on favourably.
Even though I am not in England now. I can already imagine the pictures being broadcast over the airwaves. Pictures of angry mobs, burning flags and chanting for the death of various people it's hardly a positive image to portray to the world. The worst thing about it is that these people will have created a negative impact out of a situation where morally they were in the right.
Banning Facebook, death threats and violent protests have done nothing to convince the world that any wrong has been committed. It is the peaceful people, a group in the majority, who will suffer due to the inability of some to solve a problem without creating a conflict.
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