Facebook flags Linux topics as 'cybersecurity threats' — posts and users being blocked
Facebook flags Linux topics as 'cybersecurity threats' — posts and users being blocked
DistroWatch is one of the largest affected organizations.
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
Did not expect “Linux users” to be this early in the stanzas of “First they came for the […]”
I mean, Linux literally runs the world, so if this is the best he can do, not even my bunny slippers are gonna be spooked.
The powers that be know the threat free software is to their control.
Richard Stallman was right when he said "free software, free society."
How many reasons do they have to give you before you walk away from facebook?
This is the first shot
Even though almost every big tech company uses Linux on the backend they don't want you to use it.
Think of Peacock not letting people running Linux be able to use their application.
It's free and open source, and the powers to be don't want anybody to have that.
You can do what you want with it if you are willing to learn about it. Governments don't like that.
I may be wrong, but I see more of this coming.
Are there really that many Linux users discussing on Facebook? My brothers in Open Source, there are much better places even without this ban…
Probably more like people complaining about Windows, and others recommending a switch to Ubuntu or something.
I don't use facebook, but I'm seeing Linux brought up way more among the consumer tech-crowd.
Looks like they all want to fit in with each other by resisting "windows surveillance."
Personally, I think it's pretty stupid where they decide to draw the line, almost like they're not even making the decision for themselves. But I'll still accept it if it causes more people to drop proprietary software.
I assume Facebook runs on Linux, as does the rest of the internet?
I wish Linux distros use a license that prevents this nonsense.
(I know including ethics in a license is a bad idea, but still...)
“Linux for me, not for thee”
They need the serfs to be hapless surveillance targets, not power users with technological agency.
technological agency.
Such a good term for it.
You will own nothing and be happy.
For the record, not everyone thinks ethics in licensing is a bad idea.
Are you also assuming that the idi... fine individuals that decide the content policy have any idea how Facebook works?
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.
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.
CORPO-FOSS WAR
The great prophet @[email protected] has warned us for this.
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/10/mark-zuckerberg-joe-rogan-facebook-censorship-biden
Zuckerberg on Rogan: Facebook's censorship was "something out of 1984"
"It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it's just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program."
He said he was "worried" from the beginning about "becoming this sort of decider of what is true in the world." Zuckerberg praised X's "community notes" program as superior to Facebook's model.
Way to tackle censorship, Zuck…
The irony is Facebook is a major contributor to a lot of open source software, and Zuckerberg in particular publicly praised the "open" approach of Llama and some other projects. Buts it’s clearly all just self serving, huh?
We've been on the receiving end of attention like this from Microsoft for longer than Facebook has been a thing, if Zuck thinks this is gonna make a dent in things, he's mistaken.
Remember the first time I read about Linux (long time ago) and they were basically calling it a communist os (not even joking) first site on Google at the time was all about how it was unpatriotic to use it etc.
You're not referring to this satire article by chance?
Its not suckerberg, it's Microsoft doing this. Not the first time, not the last either, definitely a low and scary step, though. This is one step in the direction of "let's literally kill the competition"
I mean they are not wrong, Linux is a very big threat of good cyber security which makes it harder for them to collect information. I am not at all surprised that Facebook views cyber security practices as a threat( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
My initial instinct is that it's not about security (obviously), but the beginning of the attack of FOSS, since China dunked on everyone with their AI model, that can now be used by anyone freely while performing similarly (with the appropriate resources) rather than the ever-growing product making you pay for their useless snake oil.
You're definitely onto something. This isn't the first time corporations have targeted FOSS, but because Linux is gaining in popularity we're starting to see the old FUD and EEE tactics come back into play.
Once we start seeing more normal people using it, primarily women, we'll also see tons of misinformation that exists to sow the seeds of doubt in their minds.
Probably something like the old "mac vs. PC" commercials but with "windows vs. linux"
I wonder if microsoft asked them to do this, either way this is something that shouldnt be ignored. Its basically direct attack and their endgoal might be to make regular people hate or fear linux. That in turn could be used to influence laws and try to ban or limit linux to corporate use only. Computers have become so integral part of society that by controlling the operating system you control the people.
I don't think it was Microsoft, in the past few years they've been being a little chill towards Linux.
As for being an attack, even if they wanted to, they couldn't get rid of Linux. Even the US government can't tell people to stop using it. I mean, they can tell people to stop, but there's no practical way for them to enforce such a law. Most distros out there also distribute via torrent, so even if you took down the websites for all the distros, you couldn't stop the distribution of the ISOs. Not to mention, if they outlawed or restricted Linux, I can't think of anything that would absolutely make the Linux users become very rebellious. Imagine the majority of the hackers, white, gray, and black hat, all of a sudden becoming very angry with the US government. It would be absolute chaos.
Not to mention, there are corporations like Valve and Ubuntu that have invested millions into Linux. I don't believe for a second they would just lay down and not fight the government outlawing something that has become very lucrative for them.
yeah, i hope i'm just overthinking. Its just that linux is basically only true freedom we have what comes to operating systems. Maybe they just want to keep people who dont know that much about computers away from linux. Though that should be opposed just as well.
I will dig out my old tails drive just out of spite if they do that.
it shouldnt be allowed to go there because it might not be reversable by then. I wish I was just paranoid but way the world is going makes this very plausible.
By the time things like that become evident its like trying to stop a boulder that has been gaining momentum for a while, which is why I wish people were more active about doing something instead of waiting until there is clear evidence that something should be done. This kind of wasnt a direct reply to content of your comment, sorry
I just can't believe. wth?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Facebook infra runs on Linux.
Facebook itself runs on Linux. There's a 0% chance it runs on Windows Server.
Sure but those links to sketchy .apk games of which the ad for them involves rape or kidnapping usually are a-okay
I am reminded about the catchphrase for GrayJay: Follow Creators, Not Platforms
Clown show, one of the reason to not to use proprietary software
Who hurt Facebook? This must be some unintended issue or else what do they have to do with Linux? Facebook has 0 reasons to do it
You mean besides the fact that Linux gives power and choice back to the user, and that goes against everything Facebook stands for?
Go and read original Distrowatch post and tell me this doesn’t sound like a plausible and way more boring explanation.
- There is an ongoing US-China trade war that started 2 presidents ago.
- Mark Zuckerberg wants to fellatio Donald Trump (hence dropping pretence of social responsibility).
- Mark Zuckerberg wants to participate in this trade war somehow so he bans mentions of Chinese tech.
- Distrowatch mentions OpenKylin, a Chinese Linux distribution, gets flagged.
- Facebook support (person making around $3.5 per month in some third world country) doesn’t know difference between specific Linux distro and Linux itself, tells Distrowatch that Linux is now banned.
- Distrowatch doesn’t research anything and cries foul without second thought because Meta is evil.
- We live in everyone is dumb timeline.
i don't want to expose my ignorance or nuthin, but- does deepseek run on linux?
Of course, its just an open source LLM that you can run on open source software like Ollama or LoLLMS
