A quick scan of tech news revealed that government agencies around the globe seem to be upset with social networks for one thing or another. I guess that means that the world agrees that social networking with internet speed is actually a rather powerful, game-changing thing.
• In Paris, the police have cracked down on a mass Facebook cocktail party around the Eiffel Tower
• in Pakistan, people are up in arms over controversial caricatures that appeared on Facebook and YouTube
• and even the United Nations have gotten together to fight the use of alcohol ads on social media networks.
We’re not saying they don’t all have understandable reasons, just that it’s interesting they’ve all happened at once.
So in their defense:
• There’s already an existing ban on drinking alcohol in the are around the Eiffel Tower. But the government isn’t banning mass cocktail parties organized online, as long as they’re done properly. Last week, a man fell to his death after taking part in a cocktail evening which was set up over Facebook and drew almost 10,000 revelers.
• In Pakistan, as in all of the Islamic world, any depiction of any prophet is blasphemous. (Notice none of their religious art has people in it?) So when people in the Western world circulate insulting images of their most highly revered prophet, it’s not taken lightly.Â
• The World Health Organization, the authority for health within the United Nations, is concerned that promoting alcohol on social networking sites threatens to entice a new generation into harmful drinking patterns. They site the above-mentioned death at the mass cocktail party.
So watch your p’s and q’s online, or you might anger a government agency of some sort!
Tags: Facebook, Internet Speed, Social Networking