Facebook is banning posts that mention various Linux-related topics, sites, or groups. Users are reporting that their accounts have been blocked or restricted after posting on Linux-related topics.
Facebook is banning posts that mention various Linux-related topics, sites, or groups. Users are reporting that their accounts have been blocked or restricted after posting on Linux-related topics.
This was first brought to attention by the open source operating system news, review, and discussion site DistroWatch, which pointed out that Facebook’s community standards had blacklisted it.
«Facebook’s internal policymakers have decided that Linux is malware and have labeled Linux-related groups a 'cybersecurity threat'», — DistroWatch reported. Tom’s Hardware attempted to post about distrowatch.com on Facebook and confirmed that it was blocked with a message citing community standards.
DistroWatch reports that Facebook’s ban went into effect on January 19. Readers have been having trouble posting links to the site on the social network. Some have told DistroWatch that their Facebook accounts have been blocked or restricted after they shared posts that mentioned Linux topics.
It states that «many groups related to Linux and Linux discussions have either been closed or many of their posts have been deleted». However, several other Facebook posts mentioning Linux were not immediately blocked.
DistroWatch says it tried to appeal the ban, which was prompted by community standards, but they say a Facebook spokesperson said Linux-related topics would remain in the cybersecurity filter.
Facebook’s excessive security measures around Linux-related topics are quite ironic. «Facebook runs much of its infrastructure on Linux and frequently posts job postings looking for Linux developers», — DistroWatch points out.
There is currently a possibility that the ban on Linux-related links and topics is a temporary algorithm glitch and will be lifted later.
Recall that last year, Finnish-American programmer Linus Torvalds, who initiated the development of the Linux kernel, supported the removal of 11 developers with ties to Russia from the list of maintainers.
