Cartoonist behind 'Draw Mohammed' Facebook page goes into hiding

Cartoonist behind 'Draw Mohammed' Facebook page goes into hiding
The satirical cartoonist who inspired the controversial "Everybody Draw Mohammed Page" on Facebook has gone into hiding on the advice of the Security AgencyMolly Norris, of Seattle, Washington, has moved and changed her name following a call for her assassination by US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The Seattle weekly newspaper said: "You may have noticed that Molly Norris's comic is not in the paper this week. That's because there is no more Molly.

"The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI she is, as they put it, 'going ghost' - moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity."

The newspaper said Norris was effectively being put into a witness protection scheme, although "without the government picking up the tab." Norris drew a cartoon in April to protest the decision by the US television channel Comedy Central to cancel an episode of the "South Park" show over its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit.

In her cartoon, Norris satirically proposed May 20 as an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day."

An "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" page quickly turned up on Facebook but Norris later said she had nothing to do with it.

"I apologise to people of Muslim faith and ask that this 'day' be called off," she said at the time.

Islam strictly prohibits depictions of the prophet as blasphemous and the controversy led to Facebook being temporarily blocked in Pakistan, and sparked angry street protests.

Facebook has announced that the number of users from India has crossed 12 million.

This week, social networking site Facebook has crossed 12-million user base in India. Globally, the networking site claims to have 500 million active users every day.

Remember the days when Orkut was the foremost social networking site in India? Those days are long past, and pretty much everyone is on Facebook now. It is increasingly a hangout for the 40-plus generation who use it to connect to their old classmates as well as a public bulletin board for the teens to let everyone know every detail of what is happening in their lives. We do not have the numbers for Orkut in India, but we are pretty confident that facebook has beaten it hollow.

The other social networking site, MySpace, has never been big in India.

In the coming year, we expect the number of Facebook users to go up even further. Indian advertisers are also looking at facebook as an advertising platform to reach out to specific demographics – something facebook does better than Google.Last month, Facebook announced its first Indian operation location as Hyderabad, which is also its first office in entire Asian region.

However, India still lacks behind as compared to other countries in terms of population penetration. According to a story in WSJ, with this new 12 million mark, the percentage penetration is close to just 1%, which is far low than compared to rest of the world.

Facebook India page officially announced this 12 million figure yesterday along with its new initiative-Facebook-Stories. Facebook-Stories is a new tool introduced, wherein users can share their own stories about impact of Facebook on their lives.

The report also suggests that while users in India upload more than 53 million photos in a month, mobile usage also increased nine-fold in the past year.With ever increasing facebook user base, the popularity of this social networking site is increasing day by day in India leaving behind other giants in the race.