

Facebook Admits Censoring Content in Pakistan - jboydyhacker
http://www.pcworld.com/article/197644/facebook_admits_censoring_content_in_pakistan.html

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india
Google in China, tweeter in Iran and Facebook here have shown three very
different responses to local requests for censorship. All three of these have
done what they believe to be in the best interests of their business.

As individuals, we don't always do what is in our own personal best interest.
We choose to execute what we percieve to be our social responsibilities and we
do so, at least in part because the society at large expects this of us.
Shouldn't we expect corporates to carry a little bit of social responsibility?

When companies act this way, they further reinforce preference falsification
and put local movements for social change years behind. Now the moderate
Muslim in Pakistan will find it even more difficult to publicly express her
views and this will push the tipping point for a more moderate Islam in
Pakistan by quite a few years.

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zweben
I don't think it's ever reasonable to expect a business to do something that
is not in their self interest; their existence is predicated upon selfish
behavior. When companies take socially conscientious actions that would appear
to go against the company's best interest, they are almost always doing so
after weighing the relative benefits of increasing public goodwill and
maintaining direct profits and finding goodwill to be of greater benefit.

I would argue that the same thing applies to individuals; that no rational
actions are truly outside of self-interest, because we do what makes us happy,
even if the action itself would appear to be selfless.

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lolcraft
A more interesting, if obvious, related question: shouldn't we, through our
political representatives, demand that corporations carry a little bit more of
social responsibility?

That would be the rational thing for us to demand, since a more liberal
Pakistan would make both us and Pakistanis happier. Nowadays it is a matter of
corporations' interest rather than law.

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CWuestefeld
_Facebook said on Tuesday that it has blocked users in Pakistan from accessing
the 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day !' page on its site out of respect for local
standards and customs._

...and thus advocating a lowest-common-denominator philosophy for the
Internet.

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stellar678
What's next? Will they start blocking Planned Parenthood's Facebook page for
the bible belt? Blocking the democratic party in red states and the republican
party in blue states?

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someone_here
A decentralized model would not be able to do this.

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jrockway
Advertising and free speech are fundamentally incompatible. Notice that no
"everyone buy pepsi" group is blocked.

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ashishbharthi
Facebook 0, Google 1

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u48998
Both the local government and the people wanted this solution, hence FB
delivered. The problem is when government would want something and people
don't. What would FB do then?

