A few weeks after it was hailed for its role in Middle Eastern uprisings, social media giant Facebook finds itself in the center of political controversy with criticism from both sides of the global political spectrum taking shots. The first page in the controversy surrounds the $1 billion case being brought against the online networking site by Jewish activist Larry Klayman, a former United States Justice Department prosecutor, failed US Senate candidate and author, who took his case before a Washington DC Superior Court last Thursday, two days after Facebook removed the “Third Palestinian Intifada” page that had enraged Klayman. It was a peaceful page that Palestinians and others had started to show their anger and frustration at Israel's policies, but after a number of right-wing activists began writing inflammatory comments on the page, the discussion quickly turned violent. After Facebook warned the page's administrators over the content, it was removed. But Klayman, who founded the law firm Judicial Watch and the privacy advocacy group Freedom Watch, was not satisfied and accused Facebook of trying to earn advertising revenues from the page so it delayed its removal. Klayman added that Facebook only closed the site after Israeli Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein wrote Zuckerberg urged him to take it down. The second case is with the Arab Bloggers Union, an organization that promotes Arab blogging and allows members on the list to share and receive posts, is accusing Facebook of deliberately shutting down their website for the third time in an attempt to what they said is to crackdown on the shared opinionated posts. Under the title: “Facebook cancels Arab Bloggers Union's page for the third time in a row in its pursuit to conceal free opinions” the ABU issued an scathing press release on Monady. ABU accused Facebook of erasing information on the existing page. AUB said they will not re-run the page again and accused the American-based social media site of having a “Zionist” and “masonic” agenda. “We will not ask this company, which proves to be of Zionist and masonic roots, to re-post the page because of how it disregards its Arab members,” the press release read. ABU also asked their members to boycot the leading social network. Bikya Masr had contacted Facebook for their comment when the page was removed earlier this year, but has not heard back from them at this time. All this comes on the heals of Facebook being praised by the international and local activist community for helping buttressed, and as American Senator John McCain argued, instigate and push forward, the uprisings that have already ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. Many commentator were quick to argue Egypt's revolution was an “Internet Revolution,” citing Facebook and Twitter as the two leading social forces that enabled millions of Egyptians to take to the streets. BM
