Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Photo : Reuters)
Following the Charlie Chebdo shooting, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a statement through his social media site success that he is quite committed to strengthening a social network so that people will be able to practice freedom of speech with no qualms against violence threats.
On Jan. 9, Friday, Zuckerberg has posted a statement on the site condemning the terror attack which was hurled against the said magazine just this week, saying that the social media giant Facebook will remain to be a sanctuary for strengthened and reinforced freedom of speech.
Zuckerberg himself had been a recipient of extremist violence threats because of his advocacy to freedom of speech. Muhammad Azhar Siddique, a Pakistani lawyer, has attempted to put Zuckerberg's life and his co-founders in jeopardy back in 2010 when the latter refused to take down caricatures of the Islam prophet Muhammad which was posted by netizen Facebook users. Zuckerberg was plagued with death threats courtesy of the Pakistani lawyer at the time.
On the other hand, Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, which is presently a trending news focus, has found a staunch supporter in the Facebook founder.
Countless of times have Facebook refused to take down any content which most religious groups fund foul and offensive to their taste. The site does not respond to any requests from government authorities to take down those posts and other similar materials which are deemed blasphemous to only one or two religious groups.
In 2014, the company took down around 4900 content posts in India, about 2000 in Turkey, and about 1700 content articles in Pakistan. Facebook stated that most of the contents that they took down served as a response to the local laws of such countries which ban criticism of the state or the country's religion in general.
A recent Pew report showed that about 71% of adult internet users around the world use Facebook, and more than 70% of which open their Facebook accounts more than once a day. This is why Zuckerberg reiterated that the world's right to freedom of speech should be protected all the more, since seldom can you meet a person who doesn't get up to date with the current events through Facebook anyway.
