Facebook Censors Prophet Muhammad Images Despite Mark Zuckerberg Promoting Importance Of Free Speech

Facebook has agreed to censor images of the prophet Muhammad in Turkey just two weeks after its chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, posted a personal statement on Facebook about the importance of free speech with the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, the Washington Post reported.

The images censored in Facebook include the very type of image that brought on the attack at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

"It's an illustration, perhaps, of how extremely complicated and nuanced issues of online speech really are. It's also conclusive proof of what many tech critics said of Zuckerberg's free-speech declaration at the time: Sweeping promises are all well and good, but Facebook's record doesn't entirely back it up," said the newspaper's Caitlin Dewey.

Zuckerberg publicly posted such declaration on Jan. 9 in his Facebook account. In his statement, Zuckerberg revealed that "a few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him."

"We stood up for this because different voices -- even if they're sometimes offensive -- can make the world a better and more interesting place," the Facebook CEO said.

"Facebook has always been a place where people across the world share their views and ideas. We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world.

"Yet as I reflect on yesterday's attack [Charlie Hebdo in Paris] and my own experience with extremism, this is what we all need to reject -- a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world.

"I won't let that happen on Facebook. I'm committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.

"My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook agreed in December to censor the page of Alexei Navalny, a critic of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, as requested by Russian Internet regulators.

The website has been accused of taking down pages linked to dissidents in Syria and China.

The International Campaign for Tibet is currently gathering support for a petition against its censorship, with the petition drawing more than 20,000 signatures already.