‘Blasphemous content’

ANI CALIFORNIA

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recently discussed a legal battle in Pakistan, where he was sued over content deemed blasphemous on Facebook, highlighting the challenges posed by differing legal frameworks around the world. In an interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg explained how such laws, which conflict with free expression values upheld by American tech companies, add pressure on global platforms to regulate content more strictly.

"There are laws in different countries that we disagree with. For example, there was a point at which someone was trying to get me sentenced to death in Pakistan because someone on Facebook had a picture where they had a drawing of Prophet Mohammed, and someone said, “‘That's blasphemy in our culture.They sued me and opened this criminal proceeding.

I don't know exactly where it went because I'm just not planning to go to Pakistan, so I was not that worried about it," the Meta chief said.  He acknowledged that the situation was unsettling, particularly in terms of personal safety. More broadly, Zuckerberg highlighted the increasing pressure on tech companies from governments that seek stricter content regulation.

"The point is, there are places around the world that just have different values that go against our free expression values and want us to crack down and ban way more stuff than I think a lot of people would believe would be the right thing to do. To have those governments be able to exert the power of saying they're going to throw you in prison - that's a lot of force.