Facebook Censors Content, Bangladesh Lifts Ban

 By 
Samuel Axon
 on 
Facebook Censors Content, Bangladesh Lifts Ban
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Depending on which region's news outlets you trust, the ban was imposed either because of "obnoxious" images of prominent Bangladeshi politicians, a user-hosted Facebook group that encouraged members to participate in a competition to draw the Prophet Muhammad, or both.

Many Muslims deem any visual depiction of Muhammad to be blasphemous.

As we predicted, Facebook blocked access to the controversial images for users within Bangladesh, but they remain accessible for users in other countries — except Pakistan, which had also blocked Facebook access but restored it earlier this week for the same reason. One man was arrested in Bangladesh over the political cartoons, but the Muhammad contest group originated outside of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's one million Facebook users will be relieved to have access to the majority of the social network restored; protests were organized after it was first blocked.

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