Zuckerberg Championed Free Speech After Charlie Hebdo, Then Pulled Muhammed Content

Mark Zuckerberg has never exactly been known as the kind of guy who keeps his word. Just ask the Winklevoss Twins, who may or may not have come up with the idea for Facebook in the first place over a decade ago while at Harvard with the aforementioned Zuckerberg (a judge awarded twins Cameron and Tyler $65 million for their lawsuit claiming such back in 2008). Either way, while Zuckerberg may be brilliant, that doesn’t automatically make him credible too.

So it comes as no surprise that the Facebook CEO is saying one thing and doing another when it comes to the prophet Muhammed and Charlie Hebdo. If you recall, the 30-year-old Zuckerberg posted a defiant, definitive post on his own Facebook page following the terror attack in Paris on the importance of free speech. For those who missed it before we continue, here it is:

As the leader of one of America’s most successful companies whose sole purpose is to help its 1.3 billion members communicate and share with friends real and otherwise, those words were inspiring. Until reports surfaced Monday that Facebook has capitulated and agreed to censor images of said prophet in Turkey.

Note: The Turkish prime minister (Ahmet Davutoglu) is quite the hypocrite himself, as he joined many world leaders in Paris earlier this month to to illustrate his solidarity for Charlie Hebdo and free speech, only to go back to Istanbul vowing to censor the kind of cartoons that magazine was fatally punished for publishing.

Come to think of it, Zuckerberg’s actions don’t come as really much of a surprise, as this isn’t the first time he’s squashed free speech on the social media juggernaut. Just last month, Russian officials used the powers of persuasion to convince Facebook to shut down an invitation page to a rally in support of a political opponent to Vladimir Putin. To review, supporters of Mr. Putin’s loudest critic–Alexei Navalny–created an event page for this past January 15th, the day he was expected to learn his verdict in a highly-controversial embezzlement case that could send him to a Russian prison for as long as a decade (a final decision hasn’t been made and Mr. Navalny remains under house arrest). According to the Russian RIA-Novosti news agency, the general prosecutor in the case was behind the event page’s demise after he “demanded to limit access to a number of resources calling for an unsanctioned mass event, including social networking groups. Instead of even waiting for a court order, Facebook simply shut down the event page.

Between the Russia censorship decision in December and Turkey now, Zuckerberg’s actions makes that whole, “Facebook has always been a place for people to share their ideas and views” line by the CEO complete BS, don’t you think?

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.