Published: January 14, 2015<\/p>\n
Following the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, millions of people, including leaders from over 40 countries, went to the streets of Paris on January 11th to condemn terrorism and reiterate their determination to defend freedom of expression. Two days earlier, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted a statement on Facebook saying he was not afraid of death threats and Facebook \u201crefused to ban content about Mohammed\u201d that offended a Pakistani extremist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stood up for this because different voices \u2014 even if they\u2019re sometimes offensive \u2014 can make the world a better and more interesting place,\u201d he wrote. \u201c[W]e never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world. \u2026This is what we all need to reject \u2014 a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world. I won\u2019t let that happen on Facebook. I\u2019m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuckerberg\u2019s brief post has been liked by more than 435,000 people and shared by more than 45,000. The applause is loud and clear.<\/p>\n
But did Zuckerberg forget something? About two weeks ago, Facebook censored a video I posted about a self-immolating Tibetan in China, and around the same time the Facebook account of exiled Chinese writer Liao Yiwu was suspended for posting photos of a Chinese artist streaking in Stockholm to protest China\u2019s imprisonment of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Thanks to media reports of these two incidents of Facebook censorship, Zuckerberg can\u2019t really paint himself as a hero who would die to defend freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
The two unfortunate censorship events occurred shortly after Zuckerberg\u2019s recent visit to China, where he showed off his Mandarin skills to an adoring audience, and after the Chinese Internet czar Lu Wei\u2019s visit to Facebook headquarters where Zuckerberg displayed writings of Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Although Facebook provided technical and neutral explanations for the two censorship incidents, expressly stating they were not motivated by political or commercial considerations, I for one cannot help making connections between these incidents and Zuckerberg\u2019s apparent attempt to ingratiate himself with the Chinese government. I wrote a letter to Facebook, Inc. titled \u201cFaith in Addition to Face\u201d to voice my concern. I believe that Facebook should understand the meaning and importance of images of self-immolating Tibetans before deleting them based on \u201cgraphicness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tibetan self-immolation video was reposted successfully, and the ban on Liao Yiwu\u2019s account was lifted too. I have given credit to Facebook for this outcome, and I have not been censored since. Still, I find Zuckerberg\u2019s statement disingenuous and somewhat opportunist. Some of my friends are of the opinion that Zuckerberg wanted to score points in light of the terrorist attack against French cartoonists, but we must remind him: If you are not afraid of death for the sake of freedom of expression, you shouldn\u2019t be afraid of the CCP for the sake of making money in China.<\/p>\n
January 12, 2015, Beijing<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
Tsering Woeser
\nTSERING WOESER<\/p>\n
Tsering Woeser is a Tibetan writer and poet born in 1966 in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, and lives in Beijing. \u201cShe writes to both a Han (Chinese) and a Tibetan audience, and her writings are said to give public expression for the first time to the emotions and experiences of a people and a culture previously hidden from the mainstream.\u201d Read more about Woeser here.<\/p>\n
Related:<\/p>\n
Facebook Deletes Post on Tibetan Monk\u2019s Self-Immolation, The New York Times sinosphere blog, December 27, 2014.<\/p>\n
Nudity, Graphic Imagery Pose China Questions for Facebook, WSJ, December 30, 2014<\/p>\n
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For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: January 14, 2015 Following th … Continue reading