The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in the Kingdom has “nothing to do with the campaign to boycott Facebook”, an official said here Thursday. Talking to Saudi Gazette, Sultan Malik, CITC media representative, said: “We take action only when the ministry asks us, and we have not received any such directives.” The CITC is the Kingdom's regulatory body for information technology. A number of Facebook users across the world marked Thursday as the “Boycott Facebook Day” appealing to Muslims to stay away from the popular networking site in response to its online competition to draw sketches of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Facebook users in the Kingdom gave a mixed reaction to the boycott appeal. Faiza A., a Pakistani national, believes that such boycotts are instrumental in expressing one's likes and dislikes. “My current profile picture on Facebook is a ‘Boycott Facebook' banner. Religion is a sensitive matter that should be given a lot of importance. Socializing demands respect for others' culture and religion and no one has the right to ridicule others in the name of freedom of expression. I am boycotting Facebook and have convinced many of my family members and friends to do the same. This is the least we can do,” said Faiza, adding that she is appealing to Facebook to delete all groups on its site that are blasphemous. Earlier in an email to Saudi Gazette, Simon Axeton, Facebook media representative, said: “We take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and react quickly to reports of inappropriate content and behavior. Specifically, we're sensitive to content that includes pornography, direct statements of hate, and actionable threats of violence. The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express opinions – even if those opinions are controversial – and maintaining a safe and trusted environment.” Many people reported the Facebook pages slandering the Prophet (pbuh) as abuse but no action has been taken by Facebook administrators. As of Thursday, at least three groups titled “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” were still running with the number of active members in each group going up to 87,367; 77,010 and 5,000, respectively. Maaz Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi IT expert, believes acts such as ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day' and ‘Boycott Facebook' are “senseless and show only the complexity and sickness of others' minds. They should not be given any attention. We love and respect our religion and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) unconditionally and I don't believe I need to show it to people by my actions. Giving importance to such acts will only give abusers an excuse to keep on hurting us and our emotions. Such is the honor of our Prophet (pbuh) that it cannot be harmed by these acts. At the same time, those who slander the Prophet (pbuh) should be checked by their respective governments. Such actions promote extremism and hatred among Muslims, encouraging them to resort to acts of extremism and terrorism,” he said.
