The Facebook Cartoon War

When cartoonist Molly Norris from Seattle made a satirical poster declaring 20 May 2010 as the first annual ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ (EDMD), she did not anticipate the furore it would create.

The road to hell is paved with non-intentions. When cartoonist Molly Norris from Seattle made a satirical poster declaring 20 May 2010 as the first annual ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ (EDMD), she did not anticipate the furore it would create. The now controversial cartoon began as a response to the online death threats received by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for depicting Prophet Muhammad in their TV series, and Comedy Central’s subsequent decision to censor the offensive episode. What Norris did not expect was for the cartoon to be hijacked and made into a Facebook page, with up to 41,000 fans at its peak, or for the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh to block Facebook pages associated with it. In India, too, access was restricted by Facebook on the request of Indian authorities. The internet angsting out seems set to last beyond the 20 May expiry date: an ‘Against Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ page on Facebook is actively competing for fans, while the original EDMD page has disappeared, leaving secondary sites in its place. Meanwhile, citizen journalists blogging about EDMD are facing potential censure from Trojan horses. Religious battles appear to have infiltrated cyberspace, and how.

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