Facebook Will Delete Posts that Criticize Islam: Facts

Story:

CONFIRMED: Facebook Will DELETE Posts That Criticize Islam! Share This Everywhere!

Other Versions

BREAKING: Facebook Will REMOVE Posts That Criticize Islam! Share This Everywhere!

Picture about Facebook Will Delete Posts that Criticize Islam — Facebook Will Delete Posts that Criticize Islam

Analysis:

The story shared heavily online, especially on social media sites, states that the social networking website Facebook will delete posts that criticize Islam. The story came into light after few such incidents did occur, so let us analyze in detail the facts about the claim.

Story in Question

The story in question appeared from a 17 December 2015 article on website yesimright.com that came with the same title. It mentioned a deleted Facebook post featuring a picture of Muslim women wearing burkas, with the caption “I’m not nervous around you because I hate your culture, I just don’t know when one of you are going to blow up”. The story asked readers to promote the hashtag #weareNOTallmuslim and show Facebook that we can’t be censored. However, we have seen the website Yes I’m Right (which does not have any about or disclaimer information as of this writing) has been promoting conservative views and liberal agenda in United States, and Donald J. Trump to be specific. Donald J. Trump is a U.S. business magnate and the candidate for the 2016 presidential election, who has raised a call to block all Muslims from entering the United States.

Screenshot of Our Test Reporting of the Facebook Post — Our Test Reporting of the Facebook Post

About the Image

As far as the ‘offensive’ image is concerned, it appeared online earlier on 19 November 2015 on an image sharing website instafotom.com that shows it — as a ‘meme’. And importantly, when we tested posting it on Facebook and reporting the same for hatred speech, Facebook reviewed it and responded with below message. Facebook did not delete the post.

Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the photo you reported for displaying hate speech and found it doesn’t violate our Community Standards.

Please let us know if you see anything else that concerns you. We want to keep Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.

Picture of Islam-hatred posts on Facebook — Islam-hatred posts on Facebook

Facebook Deleting Some Anti-Islamic Posts

Yes, it is a fact that Facebook is deleting some posts which are not in compliance with its policies and hurting religious sentiments of Muslims, and that is because Facebook lists “Hate Speech” as one of its prohibitions, apart from ‘Nudity’ and ‘Violence and Graphic Content’. The anti-Muslim commentary rose after more than 120 people were killed in a string of attacks across Paris. There were many Islam-hatred posts on Facebook and other social networking platforms that made Muslims living in the western countries unsecured (see pictures in Image Gallery). Following this, Mark Zuckerberg posted a message on Facebook to reassure Muslim users in the social community and around the world:

A recent, related and questionable example is when Pakistan actor and director Hamza Ali Abbasi condemned in a Facebook post the killings at the Parisian office of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The post read:

A french Muslim police officer dies doing his duty in the face of 2 mislead Muslim youth killing falsely in the name of the religion of peace, Islam. Yes, even my blood boils when someone insults my Prophet (S.A.W)…But that does not give individuals the right to kill. In Islam, only “Institutions” are allowed to kill for justice, not for revenge or hate. But west needs to understand too that freedom of expression includes criticism, disagreement or even rejection of faiths or ideology…but should not and must not allow “Insult”. Would it be “freedom of expression” if i brand black people as Niggers or if i say Hitler was a messiah? Would i not be branded a racist or a anti semitic? As Muslims all the world are condemning this incident…the west needs to rethink and fix its definition of “Freedom of Expression”. Otherwise…someone from almost 2 Billion of us Muslims will go ballistic and kill unjustly.

Facebook deleted the above post of Hamza Ali Abbasi, saying it violated the social networking website’s community standards and also blocked his account temporarily. However, when one user Angelic Munni asked the CEO and Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg what he has to say about the deletion, Mark replied saying “I don’t think this should have been blocked. Our team might have made a mistake. Justin, can you look into this?” Facebook official Justin Osofsky later commented on the thread and apologized saying, “As Mark mentioned, we made a mistake in taking this down. We try to do our best, but sometimes make mistakes. We apologize for this error, and hope that the author will re-post it as we are not able to restore it from our end. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.”

To Conclude

Yes, it is a fact that Facebook has been deleting some anti-Islamic posts amidst rising anti-Muslim commentary, and we like to believe that is to keep the social networking community a safe and healthy place for everyone; not to generate hatred that goes against their policies. Some people call this a curb on freedom of speech, but again, it should be understood that the two terms “Freedom of Speech” and “Religious Sentiments” are not fully compatible with each other. In some cases of deleted Facebook posts, like that of Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbasi mentioned above, we believe there has been misjudgment between “Hate Speech” and “Rational Criticism” by Facebook officials who are responding to reports and deleting ‘offensive’ or ‘objectionable’ posts.