cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18210719
Facebook is banning posts that mention various Linux-related topics, sites, or groups. Some users may also see their accounts locked or limited when posting Linux topics. Major open-source operating system news, reviews, and discussion site DistroWatch is at the center of the controversy, as it seems to be the first to have noticed that Facebook’s Community Standards had blackballed it.
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DistroWatch says that the Facebook ban took effect on January 19. Readers have reported difficulty posting links to the site on this social media platform. Moreover, some have told DistroWatch that their Facebook accounts have been locked or limited after sharing posts mentioning Linux topics.
If you’re wondering if there might be something specific to DistroWatch.com, something on the site that the owners/operators perhaps don’t even know about, for example, then it seems pretty safe to rule out such a possibility. Reports show that “multiple groups associated with Linux and Linux discussions have either been shut down or had many of their posts removed.” However, we tested a few other Facebook posts with mentions of Linux, and they didn’t get blocked immediately.
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Addition to include the DistroWatch link: https://distrowatch.com/weekly-mobile.php?issue=20250127#sitenews
My conspiracy theory: Meta has an AI that scans articles/the internet for threats and then adjusts the filters for Facebook. The AI just read the story that some Games companies are blocking Linux clients, because they see them as unsafe. The AI just copied what it read.
I agree. It’s like Occam’s Razor, but with stupidity instead of simplicity: the most stupid reason is the most likely.
Macco’s Razor. The stupidest possible explanation is probably the right answer.
Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or incompetence).
This works for individuals, but when it comes to corporations, you really have to ask, why not both?
Schrodinger’s Razor:
The answer is both really smart and really stupid, but you won’t know which until you look at the source.
Microsoft’s Schrodinger’s Razor
The answer is both really smart and really stupid, but you won’t know which until you look at the source, and you can’t view it.
And when you look at it it’s stupid either way
Sometimes it’s both. As a software dev, I’ve seen ingenious solutions (heroics, we call them) for problems that could’ve (and should’ve) been solved a much simpler way, but wasn’t because the dev didn’t have the needed context. So both incredibly smart and incredibly dumb.
That’s the reason I got out of programming. Spending days reinventing the concept of the wheel so you can then reinvent the wheel, and as soon as you finish someone looks at your code and says “why didn’t you just add 1 here?”
I didn’t make enough money to maintain a drug habit that would have allowed me to keep my sanity.
This is the opposite of a conspiracy. More of an incompetence theory.
Yup, sheer incompetence rather than malice is my guess. Meta has nothing to gain by promoting windows.