From flickr.com/photos/91693908@N00/3104249074/: internet censorship protestors 7
(Image by Unknown Owner) Details DMCA
It was August 26 or 27, 2016 when (while I was posting my blog posts on Facebook (FB), FB informed me for the first time that my post contained a malicious link and suggested the removal of the link if I wanted to share the post. The post had contained a link to an Indian newspaper ibtimes ( and it was about the sedition charges that Amnesty International was facing in India for organizing a protest for Broken Kashmiri families that took place in Bangalore. First I tried to drop this news but noticed that it was my whole blog that was blocked (i-e FB was not allowing me to post any blog post). I have been using blogger app since 2008 and had been active on blogger even before Facebook. This was shocking as I had never experienced such incident this before. As a responsible resident of Canada and a journalism student of Harvard Extension School, I am aware of professional ethical standards but to make doubly sure I again checked Facebook community standards and confirmed that I was not violating any of them either.
I immediately reported to Facebook that I was not violating any standard and requested for my blog to be unblocked immediately and further asked for clarification what it was in my Blog that was unsafe and malicious? In fact, my Blog is against racism and it's sole purpose is to promote human rights of persecuted communities, like Blacks, the transgenders, the Muslims and war affected people like the Syrian refugees. As a freelance journalist and now a part-time journalism student, I have always tried to be a voice for the voiceless irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity and nationality.
I had launched this Blog titled Media Myths as a small self-administered journalistic platform in mid-July 2016 and started forwarding mainstream media news with a one or two liner analysis and links to the original article crediting its author and publication. Additionally, I also shared my own articles from three or four online publications and one print publication. To develop an audience base, I began sharing this Blog with common interest groups already active on Facebook.
Since I noticed first blocking incident, Facebook is constantly blocking and unblocking my contents without replying to my reports. After 15 days, I moved to another blog only to notice the next morning that the new blog has been hacked. Its code had been tampered. The name of the blog which appears in the beginning of the post when it is shared on any social media platforms truncated. I know there is no such setting in blogger and for sure someone tampered with the code. Any new blog I created from that point was hacked.
More such suspicious events unfolded later. One day I suddenly noticed I can't share a funny pic of Indian Prime minister Modi on my timeline. Then today, I noticed no picture is appearing on my FB timeline. The post just shows the link without the picture. People in the media know the significance of multimedia contents to grip the attention of the reader.
After more than 20 days FB acknowledged my report and appreciated me for my patience on Sept. 18 and then on Sept. 23 but did not responded to any of my queries. Interestingly, all my other reports to FB regarding sexually explicit contents were being solved within a day or two with a quick verbal response ignoring this particular query regarding blocking of my contents.
This is tantamount to deliberate intimidation. Blocking is Facebook discretion but this hacking and further limiting the use of my timeline is mean. Moreover, it can have security issues. The hacker can add malicious contents on my profile and can report the police. It is very easy to believe that a Muslim lady may be a radical and police can take action against me without any further proof.
While the people around me are not taking it seriously, I repeatedly asked myself, what may be the Consequences of this hacking for me? What if the hacker adds malicious stuff to my Blog postings, like a bomb-making recipe for instance and reports it to the police? I am a Muslim of Pakistani origin. In the current international ambiance, this could well go not only against me but also against my family as well as my community.
Any terrorism-related charges against individuals of our socio-cultural background are presumed true immediately and any slightest negative observation (even out of context) found on our online profile is enough to condemn us as guilty. Though the accepted norms of justice consider a person as innocent until he is proved guilty, but for our community, a different rule is applied and its individuals are denounced as guilty until proved innocent.
It was hard to summon the courage and go to the police station but I went and as per expectations policewomen on duty refused to write the report although I made it clear that I just want to report that my blog has been hacked for security reasons and I do not expect them to take action. I had to convince her for about 15 minutes that it is a security issue if somebody puts some malicious material, for instance, a pledge to an extremist organization or a bomb-making recipe. When she was still not ready I finally asked her, if someone reports to you that this lady has radical activities on Facebook, would you not take action against me? And thankfully this made her hand me over the reporting sheet.
The articles I write, and the hard news I share range anything from Donald Trump's racial slurs to Saudia Arabia's assault on Yemen, and from Edward Snowdon's role in shaping modern journalism to racism and transgender issues across the globe. There is nothing particular against any nation but as a journalist, my utmost duty is, to tell the truth, supported by facts. And above all the shared articles were not my own but belonged to mainstream news media so what was wrong with that?
Then when I protested on Twitter twitting "#MarkZukerberg your Facebook is hijacked. Don't let it go in the hands of extremists," an Indian troll group matched me to Afia Siddiqui that this Muslim lady also lives in Massachusettes like Afia Siddiqui who reached Afghanistan with a bomb-making recipe. Though I have read about this lady, I had never met her and do not know much about the case either in which she was sentenced to 86 years in prison. They were multiple twitter users and tried to provoke me but I did not answer.
As a freelance journalist, I have always exercised my freedom of expression to say what I deem right irrespective of religion, nationality, color and cast. Being the daughter of parents born in different parts of India, I was brought up in Pakistan and lived in the Middle East before finally settling in Canada. With such a diverse background, I am also grappling with a mid-life career change and I feel I have much to share with the world. Summing up I had or have no score to settle with India. Then Why I am being harassed? Why can't I exercise my freedom of expression?
And who may be harassing me if not Facebook internal staff because the things are not limited to blocking or deleting my Facebook account? All my digital platforms and their data is vulnerable. I am afraid I will lose my data if I made them angry. I am feeling badly bullied. Because it seems they are influential on Facebook as well as Google platforms which contain YouTube and blogger too. I am unable to decide what to do and where to take help? It simply means that someone (either an individual or some covert lobby), significantly influential on different digital platforms and closely monitoring me has hacked my blog. It stands to reason that both blocking and hacking are linked with each other and leads me to conclude that someone (most probably a group) influential enough to closely monitor my online activities on different platforms is involved in this deliberate act of intimidation and mental harassment against me.
I have ceased my politically charged blogging activity and have started a travelogue but I am still not able to promote the traveloge on FaceBook although it doesn't anything political.
Facebook is not a state but when it comes to media it is more powerful than the states. And we the consumers or products of Facebook are its citizens called netizens. I want to ask whether it is a democratic state or not? Does it adhere to the rules of transparency? if not should we start a struggle for our democratic rights?
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