...that which can be blamed on stupidity, but this is stupidity that defies belief.
Snopes.com, an essential tool in countering the flood of urban legends and false information that appears routinely on the net, has apparently been banned by Facebook.
Links to Snopes from within posts are intercepted. Facebook warns the site may be "unsafe" or "spammy."
Really?
Just last month, Facebook flooded users' newsfeeds with graphic porn. It routinely features links to ads and apps harboring underlying malware. And let's not forget the recent Federal Trade Commission order directing Facebook to cease its "unfair and deceptive practices" which routinely violated users' private information. The offenses were such that Facebook will undergo privacy audits for the next 20 years.
True, a Snopes search may trigger a pop-up window featuring an ad. But it's really stretching things to call that common behavior "unsafe" or "spammy."
Perhaps it's seasonal. With all the "War on Christmas" blatherings and phony quasi-religious postings, Snopes probably gets more links from Facebook during December than the rest of the year. Perhaps some internal Facebook spam metric was triggered from the increased activity.
Whatever. Facebook needs to stop interfering with Snopes now.
UPDATE: Whether due to human intervention or an automated triggering mechanism, as of noon EDT 12/12/11, Snopes is no longer being blocked.
Categories: WTF?
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