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Canadian columnist Anthony Furey claims he recently received an email said to be from Twitter’s legal team telling him he may have broken a slew of Pakistani laws. Furey initially thought the email was spam; however, he was wrong.
Furey Googled relevant sections of Pakistan’s penal code, and it was then that the Toronto Sun op-ed editor learned he stood accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad – a crime punishable by death in the Islamic republic – and Twitter later confirmed the correspondence was genuine.
Furey’s offense was to post cartoons of the prophet several years ago.
Furey and two other prominent critics of extremism in Islam say they too have received notices over alleged violations of Islamabad’s laws, despite having no connection to the South Asian country.
They say the notices amount to an effort to stifle their voices – a charge Twitter denies, arguing the notices came about as a result of “valid requests from an authorized entity,” understood to mean Pakistan, helped users “to take measures to protect their interests,” and the process is not unique to any one country.
Scared and upset yet?
WIBC host Tony Katz discussed the issue Tuesday morning:
“I hate the idea of regulating these companies with everything in me. What I have come to learn and understand is that [social media companies] will force it upon themselves. They can’t stop; they won’t stop. They’ve created the adversarial relationship, and when we discovered it, they said ‘Bite me.’”
Click the link below to hear Tony’s full commentary:
