Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemned the attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people including eight journalists.
In a blog post, Zuckerberg encouraged everyone to reject extremists who want to suppress the freedom of speech around the work.
Zuckerberg wrote, “Yet as I reflect on yesterday’s attack and my own experience with extremism, this is what we all need to reject — a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world.”
He also remembered an incident wherein a Pakistani extremist fought to have him sentence to death. The reason of the Pakistani was the refusal of Facebook to ban content about Mohammed that offended him.
Zuckerberg explained, “We stood up for this because different voices — even if they’re sometimes offensive — can make the world a better and more interesting place.”
Zuckerberg says Facebook is for freedom of speech
Zuckerberg emphasized he built Facebook for people across the world to share their views. The social network giant is a platform for freedom of speech. According to him, “We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world.
He vowed that the attack against Charlie Hebdo will not happen to Facebook. Zuckerberg added, “I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage.”
Zuckerberg post received 319,436 likes and it was shared by 29,984 people as of this writing.
Apple and Google support Charlie Hebdo
Tech giants, Apple and Google also expressed support for Charlie Hebdo. The iPhone maker updated its French website and included the phrase “JE SUIS CHARLIE” (I am Charlie).
On the other hand, the search engine giant displayed a black ribbon on its homepage and pledged €250,000 to support Charlie Hebdo through the Digital Press Fund.
Ludovic Blecher, director of Google IPWA Fund for Digital Innovation told the Guardian that they are trying to figure out a way to provide a financial support foir Charlie Hebdo.”
“We are a fund for the press. We must enable them to be able to write, even if we don’t agree, it’s a question of diversity of speech. We’re working on a process in order to find an exceptional answer to an exceptional situation. The role of the fund is to help the press. We’re playing our role. But we are still working on the technical process,” said Blecher.
