Mark Zuckerberg defends censorship policies despite Charlie Hebdo support

Facebook likes free speech, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended his decision to condemn the recent terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine on free speech grounds, despite his companys willingness to censor some content.

Zuckerbergs status update on 9 January promising a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence sparked a debate about Facebooks own censorship, from breastfeeding photos to a post by Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbass that questioned the value of insulting speech.

Unsurprisingly, the subject of his Charlie Hebdo post came up during Zuckerbergs latest public question and answer session, held this week in Colombia where Facebook is launching its Internet.org initiative to get more people online.

He was asked why he had spoken out about the Charlie Hebdo attack, but not about other violent events around the world, including in Iraq and Palestine.

It wasnt just a terrorist attack about just trying to do some damage and make people afraid and hurt people. This was specifically about peoples freedom of expression and ability to say what they want, said Zuckerberg.

Although he took pains to stress that all terrorist incidents are really horrible, Zuckerberg said he spoke out about Charlie Hebdo because he saw it as an attack of freedom of expression, and so particularly relevant to Facebook.

That really gets to the core of what Facebook and the internet are, I think, and what were all here to do. We really stand up and try to make it so that everyone can have as much of a voice as possible, he said.

There are limits and restrictions on these things, but across the board we generally are always trying to fight to help as many people as possible share as much as they want. This event just seemed like an event where people needed to come together not only to fight back against terrorism... but also to stand up for giving everyone in the world a voice.

A follow-up question from a member of the audience at the Q&A asked whether Facebook would break the law in countries where free speech is restricted, to defend those principles.

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Mark Zuckerberg defends censorship policies despite Charlie Hebdo support