Pro-Pakatan FB Users Threaten to Boycott Facebook and Move to Google

Apart from the usual government suspects, Facebook users in Malaysia now think that Facebook Inc may have had a hand in blocking access to at least six pro-Pakatan Rakyat webpages, and are pushing the American company for an answer.

Three Chinese-language pro-Pakatan Facebook users have complained to Facebook Inc that their pages were inaccessible by users in Malaysia since last Saturday, but the California-based social utility company has kept silent, they said.

Six pro-Pakatan Facebook pages are currently inaccessible, while deputy Information Minister Jailani Johari said today that he was unaware of any government bans on these pages.

"You're saying you received a report from a third party that infringes or otherwise violates their rights that led you to make such an action.

"How easily and hastily that judgment was made by Facebook. Don't you see by passing that judgment, you have rudely removed the rights of free speech of Malaysian people?

"We strongly urge you to lift your ban immediately," addressed one of the blocked Facebook pages named, ‘Sharing Yours Sharing Mine’, in a message to the Facebook Team.

‘Sharing Yours’ said that they replied after receiving a notice from the Facebook Team, informing that its webpage has been blocked because of a complain from "a third party".

"We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other infringing content, as it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeated infringers when appropriate," the private message from the Facebook Team warned.

No response yet
‘Sharing Yours’ said that they have since written back in protest to the ban twice to the Facebook Team, but as of Monday afternoon, there was still no response.

They seriously questioned the political bias and incorruptibility of Facebook.

Another two Facebook users - who are frequent commenters on pro-Pakatan news stories - have also written an open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"As an American company, your corporate move to block at least the following two pages from Malaysian users - www.facebook.com/supportprdap and www.facebook.com/zzkuaixun - is a shame to Facebook."

"Disregarding that it is due to political pressure from the local government or (that they have paid) Facebook to filter Malaysians out, it is a shameful denial of freedom of speech."

They threatened to migrate their web content away from Facebook and to use rival hosts such as Google instead. The letter has been popularly shared by other Facebook users.
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http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/255286