Ophelia Benson reports that Facebook de-activated Salman Rushdie’s account but has now re-activated it, though it initially asked him to call himself Ahmed Rushdie. I’m not surprised.
Facebook has a habit of shutting down the accounts of activists or anyone who speaks up about Islam and Islamism. At the height of the campaign in support of Iran stoning case, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Facebook also deactivated Mina Ahadi and my Facebook accounts and only reinstated us after several days of protests. They have also censored links I have tried to post on a number of occassions.
Most importantly, they are an ‘appalling spy machine‘ that will readily hand us over to the highest bidder.
But activists like myself need to get out message out and Facebook is one way of doing that – just as long as we know what we’re getting ourselves into…
I wonder if Facebook will shut down the accounts of other activists from other religions or extreme political leanings? Islam is such a buzz word at the moment that I often fear that people are putting so much attention to combatting Islamic discontent on either side that they’re ignoring other very real dissent elsewhere.