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On Jan. 7, 2015 Paris endured its deadliest attack in modern times. That morning, three Islamist gunmen tore through the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.This cowardly and barbaric attack was thought to be perpetrated in response to a 2011 issue that carried a caricature of the prophet Mohammad. Visual depictions of Mohammad are forbidden by Sunni Islamic teachings.

Despite the arrests of seven suspects connected to the attacks, the two brothers thought to be the gunmen, Cherif and Said Kouachi, remained at large for three days until two separate standoffs occurred on Jan. 9.

Friday, sustained gunfire followed by explosions echoed through a warehouse where the Kouachi brothers had taken a hostage. Not far away, a second confrontation was developing at a Kosher Market in eastern Paris. Another man said to be connected to the brothers threatened to kill others if there were any attempts made to capture Cherif and Said Kouachi. More died on this day, including the Kouachi brothers.

In total, 17 people lost their lives during this stretch of chaos. On Sunday morning, an organized march, the largest in France since the end of WWII, drew a crowd of 1.6 million in the streets of Paris.

Charlie Hebdo's creative professionals waged a war against censorship. Throughout history, and across the world today, censorship is used as a means of social control. Freedom of expression is an ongoing struggle.

As opinions are shaped and shifted by those who say what's right and wrong our choices no longer become ours. The 12 artists and professionals at Charlie Hebdo lost their lives in a fight for freedom. Let's continue their fight by having our voices heard and by letting every decision we make be our very own.

Greyson Gibson is a Sonoma County writer. His first novel is 'Nowhere to Go but Everywhere.'

Open Mic is a weekly feature in the 'Bohemian.' We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write openmic@bohemian.com.

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Battling Censorship

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Playeressence.com - Continued Censorship & Potential Flagging to Avoid Exposure - Video

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We should be relaxed and recharged after the Christmas break, but this years holiday period was tainted with terrible news. Airplane accidents and terrorist attacks made for a sombre end of last year, and shocked the world in the first few days of 2015.

Predictably, spy agency bosses and politicians say the Martin Place and Paris shootings justify more surveillance and data retention to prevent future attacks.

Attorney-General George Brandis, who previously found it difficult to not only detail what his data retention bill would cover but also why exactly it was needed, now thinks his government has been vindicated and that stricter security laws are urgently needed.

It is a contradiction in terms: protect the Western way of life and its illusory ideals of freedom of speech and liberty by doing the exact opposite and clamping down all those things.

Such contradictions are not problematic for the powers that be. I dont like predictions, but for 2015 it seems pretty clear that every person and organisation will be monitored much more than before.

Neither France nor UK are very strong on protecting peoples privacy from official snooping, and there is already extensive surveillance, physical and online, in both countries.

Those measures weren't sufficient to prevent the Charlie Hebdo attack and ensuing murders of hostages during the hunt for the gunmen, so there is no logical argument to introduce the same measures here.

I dont want a situation where privacy is so... sacrosanct that terrorists can confidently operate from behind those walls without fear of detection."

- MI5 chief Andrew Parker.

Parker has support for this notion with the British prime minister David Cameron. The BBC quoted Cameron as campaigning the next election on what seems to be a total erosion of privacy for everyone.

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Censorship isn't the answer

Of all the widely used social media platforms, Facebook not only remains the most populated, but also the most controversial. When it comes to Pakistan , a particularly warped environment is developing.

It is a well-known fact that accusations of blasphemy in a country like Pakistan are tantamount to incitement of violence. Also well-known is the fact that Pakistans blasphemy laws prescribe a death penalty for blasphemy.

Yet in one recent instance, a Facebook page making a case (in Urdu) for the punishment of a Pakistani woman for blasphemy was reported by a large number of users, but Facebook refused to take action against the offending page with a standard response that the page had not violated the platforms community standards.

Consequently, the page and its vile messages remained accessible for days.

In another case, an Islamabad-based female activist underwent severe harassment online, which included her being not only accused of apostasy (another grave allegation with potentially lethal consequences) but also having her private information leaked across the platform.

Predictably, all of her complaints against Urdu content were dismissed by Facebook.

Facebook has explained that its content control policy ensured adequate checks and balances, especially when it came to respecting local laws and traditions.

However, such a policy is highly problematic because in countries like Pakistan, local laws and traditions support human rights violations such as capital punishment, religious discrimination and persecution.

Also read: And now Facebook

Facebook's growing commitment to government authorities instead of its users' fundamental rights is thought-provoking, and exhibits how the influence of political economies is possibly at play.

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Hamza's case