Facebook Quashes Mobile Phone Rumors

Facebook said on Monday it is not building a mobile phone, dismissing a TechCrunch story that it is working on software for a device from a hardware manufacturer.

"The story is not accurate," according to a company statement. "Our approach has always been to make all phones and apps more social, not build a phone. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a "Facebook Phone" (even internally) because that's such an attractive sound bite, but our real strategy is to make everything social and not build one phone or integration."

TechCrunch reported that Facebook wanted more control over a phone's operating system in order to more deeply integrate with phone features such as contact lists.

Facebook said it is also working on enabling full support on mobiles for its Connect feature, which allows people to use their Facebook identification credentials to log into other Web-based applications.

"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this," according to Facebook. "For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called 'Facebook Phone')."

But Facebook did describe its mobile work, such as an HTML5 version of the site. HTML5 is the latest specification for the Web's mother tongue that enables new graphic features and the ability to create snappy Web applications with desktop-like performance, among others.

Pakistan restores access to Facebook

Pakistani authorities today restored access to Facebook on the orders of a court that had blocked the popular social networking website nearly two weeks ago for hosting a page with blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

Justice Ijaz Chaudhry of Lahore High Court adjourned proceedings in the case related to the blocking of Facebook till June 15 and said he would review his decision on that date.

“I am not closing this case,” he said.

The judge asked Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik to inform the court on June 15 whether any websites, including Facebook, had again uploaded any blasphemous material.

Mr. Malik told the court that the Pakistan government had registered a protest over the “blasphemous and sacrilegious” content posted on Facebook with the US, where the website has its headquarters.

U.S. authorities had agreed with Pakistan that the hosting of such material on a website is a “crime”. An assurance had been given to Pakistan that something similar would not happen again, Mr. Malik said.

The judge remarked that if any websites hosted blasphemous content, they would again be blocked.

The Islamic Lawyers Movement, which filed the petition that led to the blocking of Facebook and other sites hosting blasphemous content, protested the court’s decision.

Acting on the court’s order, the Information Technology Ministry instructed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to unblock Facebook and block only URLs that contain blasphemous contents.

Justice Chaudhry had directed the PTA on May 19 to block Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

Authorities subsequently extended the crackdown to other websites.

In Islamabad, Wahaj—us—Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan told PTI that about 1,200 URLs continued to be blocked to prevent access to blasphemous and sacrilegious content.

The PTA was asked by the Information Technology Ministry to remain vigilant and close links containing blasphemous contents without disrupting the flow of information needed by internet users.

70pc want permanent ban on Facebook

The 70 per cent people in Pakistan want permanent ban on Facebook, while another 14 percent said they support court’s order for banning the website till May 31, 2010.
In a public poll conducted by a technology blog ‘ProPakistani.pk’, the participants expressed their sheer anger on Facebook for displaying blasphemous drawings of Prophet Muhammad (SAWW).
The vote count is in thousands while the poll is still running. In the first three days of the poll, some 70 per cent of participants said they want Facebook to be banned permanently in Pakistan, while another 15 per cent supported Facebook’s ban till May 31 only.
The eight per cent participants were of the opinion that single URL ban was enough while the remaining seven per cent said they did not want ban on Facebook at all.
Lahore High Court has earlier ordered banning Facebook and YouTube till May 31 for showing inappropriate content on websites.
Commenting on poll results, Jabran Rafique, a student in London, while talking to The Nation said that thousands of people had complained Facebook to remove the blasphemous content through Facebook’s standard reporting procedure but no action was taken at all by the Facebook administration.
“But on the other hand they only took 20 minutes to shut down a page against Jewish on demand of some so-called Jewish cyber force.
Does it not a discrimination against only one race and religion? We must not use Facebook ever again,” he concluded.

Facebook ban remains burning issue for all citizens

LAHORE: After the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) banned Facebook in Pakistan, with a permanent ban looming over, users of the social networking website have been asking the same question: Why was such a blasphemous page even launched?

Members of religious groups and students from various organisations have been protesting over the last one-week to register their anger against the shameful act.

“The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is a Jew and this has been done on purpose. It’s not the first time, as previously such blasphemous caricatures have been published in newspapers abroad,” a protesting student, Amna told Daily Times.

She added, “We are ordinary people, we have never intended to harm anyone, yet these people have used a social networking site to hurt the feelings of millions of Muslims, which is totally unacceptable.”

An American cartoonist, Molly Norris from Seattle, drew an irreligious caricature in April to protest against the decision of the US television channel Comedy Central to cancel an episode of the popular show South Park over its blasphemous depiction of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). In her cartoon, Molly satirically proposed May 20 as the day to draw such sketches.

The page quickly turned up on Facebook but Molly, writing on her website, said she had nothing to do with it. The page has been condemned by youngsters, students, the Punjab Union of Journalists, celebrities and musicians alike. They have demanded that the responsible people should apologise for this immoral act.

Decision appreciated: The PTA decision to ban Facebook in Pakistan and its related sites has been appreciated by citizens, but they have made it loud and clear that the people responsible for this act need to apologise.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the issue of caricatures had already been raised at the Council for Human Rights, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the United Nations General Assembly. “Now Facebook is being used to do the same thing and it is not acceptable at any level. We are looking forward to bring like-minded countries together on this issue and form a strategy to seek apology from the responsible people,” he said.

A Muslim solution: However, it’s about time that Muslim computer experts came forward and designed a website similar to Facebook so that millions of Muslim users switch to it, he added.

فیس بک کی نزع، کارٹونسٹ نے معافی مانگ لی

ایک امریکی خاتون کارٹونسٹ نے جس نے فیس بک پر لوگوں کو پیغمبرِ اسلام کے خاکے بنانے کی دعوت دی تھی،اور جس سے ایک نزع شروع ہوگئی تھی، اس معاملے میں اپنے کردار پر معافی مانگ لی ہے۔

اپنے بلاگ میں مولی نورس نے کہا کہ ان کے کارٹون کو ’ہائی جیک‘ کر لیا گیا اور یہ کہ ’خاکے بنانے کی دعوت دینے سے مسلمانوں کے جذبات مجروح ہوئے ہیں‘۔

پاکستان میں فیس بک پر’پابندی‘

لاہور ہائیکورٹ کا توہینِ آمیز خاکوں کے حوالے سے پاکستان میں فیس بُک تک رسائی پر پابندی لگانے کا حکم۔

Lahore High Court ban on facebook

LAHORE: Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority secretary to reply until Wednesday (today), on a petition seeking a ban on Facebook, which is holding a competition of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Islamic Lawyers Movement filed the petition through Chaudhry Zulfiqar advocate, who stated that a competition was announced on Facebook on April 20 which would continue until May 20, asking all the members of the website to create their caricatures to participate in the competition. Zulfiqar said under the law no practice against Islam could be allowed in the country. He told the court that the website, having various features against the injunctions of Islam, is banned in various countries. Zulfiqar submitted that there were 45 million users of Facebook in Pakistan, adding that the PTA was responsible for its spread in Pakistan. He said the PTA has already blocked various websites in the country but was reluctant to ban Facebook. He said students and various segments of the society have already started protests in the country, which could be harmful for the public property. He requested the court to issue directions to PTA to put an immediate ban on the use of Facebook in the Pakistan.

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Call or email to Chairman PTA for implementation the decisionimmediately

Tel: +92-51-2878143
+92-51-2878156
Fax: +92-51-2878155
chairmanoffice@pta.gov.pk

Boycott FACEBOOK