Says suppressing political criticism could be a factor

Pakistan Facebook ban suspicious: Google chief


A Facebook page that fueled rage in Pakistan was gone from the social networking service on Friday (File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP)

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt on Friday said he suspects suppressing political criticism is a factor behind the move to block YouTube and Facebook in Pakistan in the name of Islam.

"I'm always suspicious of these broad bans," Schmidt told a gathering at non-profit public policy institute New America Foundation, of which he is chairman of the board.

"In every case we looked at, there is an official reason then another reason. There is an awful lot of political criticism they are blocking at the same time. I am very suspicious here."

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) banned access to Facebook, YouTube and more than 450 links, including restricted access to Wikipedia in view of what it called "growing sacrilegious content".

A Facebook page that fueled rage and protest in Pakistan was gone from the popular online social networking service on Friday but the popular social networking service said it remained blocked in that country.

The Facebook user that organized an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression" evidently took down the page along with a separate blog about the campaign.

The disappearance of the page came as protesters in Pakistan shouted "Death to Facebook," "Death to America" and burnt U.S. flags, venting growing anger over "sacrilegious" caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet.

The "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" inspired by an American woman cartoonist sparked a major backlash in the conservative Muslim country of 170 million.

Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row has sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.