Facebook's Initiative To Guard Illegal Content Spurs A Debate

Monday, December 13, 2010, 17:53

Facebook has spurred debate over freedom of speech over internet.

On account of the social networking site to come up with a hate and harassment team, as a branch of a virtual police squad, charged with dealing with illegal content which does not fit into the terms and conditions of the site as sparked a debate over freedom of speech over internet.

Following whistle blowing website, 'Wikileaks, which released US diplomatic cables, Facebook came under scrutiny. The New York Times has stated that Facebook took down a page used by WikiLeaks supporters to organize hacking attacks on the sites of such companies, including PayPal and MasterCard

It said that the page violated the terms of service, which prohibit material that is hateful, threatening, pornographic or incites violence or illegal acts. However, it did not remove WikiLeaks"s own Facebook pages.

About a billion pieces of content going on the social networking site, a day with 5,00 million members, the site's initiative to guard such content would affect the freedom of speech over internet.

“Facebook has more power in determining who can speak and who can be heard around the globe than any Supreme Court justice, any king or any president. It is important that Facebook is exercising its power carefully and protecting more speech rather than less," the paper quoted Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University who has written about free speech on the Internet, as saying.

The social networking site earlier attracted resistance owing to its earlier decisions to remove material related to Holocaust denial or pages critical of Islam and other religions which caused certain foreign governments to block it temporarily.

Hence a step to guard illegal content with a set up of hate harassment team on Facebook has spurred a debate over freedom of speech over internet.