UPDATE: Facebook has complied with Turkey's request to block pages mocking Prophet Muhammad.

In the wake of the tragic shootings at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, world leaders gathered to march the streets of the French capital to show their support for the concept of free speech. Of course, many of the powerful attendees aren't actually in favour of people saying what they want at all; in fact, lots of the "freedom fighters" strongly oppose it.

The presence of the Turkish Prime Minister in Paris was a strange one, given that it currently has 40 journalists behind bars and President Tayyip Erdogan has sued cartoonists for their lampooning of his character and appearance.

Today, Reuters reports that the Turkish authorities have ordered Facebook to block any pages that insult the Prophet Muhammad, accompanied by a threat to block the entire site if it fails to comply. This is not the first time that the powers-that-be in Turkey have demonstrated their fear of social networking sites. In March of last year, Erdogan blocked Twitter after he realised that it was disseminating rumours of his alleged corruption at uncontrollable speed.

It perhaps no surprise that Erdogan wants the images blocked – Turkey is a largely Muslim country and many experts believe that Erdogan is pushing his own Islamic agenda onto the way that the country is run. He also launched an inquiry into the newspaper that reprinted the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

On January 9, Mark Zuckerberg wrote this post promising that he would not be banning any content from Facebook because others find it offensive.

Post by Mark Zuckerberg.

Despite Zuckerberg's seemingly resolute stance in the face of censorship, over a six month period in 2014, Facebook restricted 1,893 pieces of content after Turkey requested it. It remains to be seen whether or not Facebook will remain strong in a country where 60% of the population use the internet every day.

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