Facebook-parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that he was “almost sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan”. At a Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg raised concerns about the ongoing legal challenges his company faces in Pakistan due to a lawsuit over alleged blasphemous content on Facebook.
According to reports, the lawsuit accuses Facebook of hosting content that violates Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, which impose severe penalties for acts considered offensive to religious beliefs. Zuckerberg discussed the situation, emphasizing Meta’s commitment to balancing free expression with respect for local regulations and cultural values.
“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,” he stated
“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,” Zuckerberg added.
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During the podcast, he also highlighted the increasing pressure on tech companies from stricter content regulation. He said “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. I think this is one of the things that the US government is probably going to need to help defend the American tech companies for abroad.”