Meta blocked Distrowatch links on Facebook while running Linux servers
- Reference: 1738067413
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/01/28/facebook_blocks_distrowatch/
- Source link:
In the [1]latest installment of its weekly newsletter, the smaller site's editor, Jesse Smith, claimed his efforts to report the issue got him blocked:
I've tried to appeal the ban and was told the next day that Linux-related material is staying on the cybersecurity filter. My Facebook account was also locked for my efforts.
In the meantime, regular Distrowatch readers were recommended to [2]follow its RSS feeds . (We note that the [3]Thunderbird email client supports RSS, in addition to [4]Usenet newsgroups and [5]Matrix chat , if you're looking for more open alternatives to the increasingly closed social networks.) Distrowatch also has an [6]active account on Mastodon for denizens of the Fediverse.
The Reg FOSS desk has confirmed that the block was real and active up until lunchtime today. Attempting to post anything containing the text distrowatch.com resulted in Facebook refusing to accept the comment.
Discussion of Linux being blocked under the site's cybersecurity rules is an oddity. As Smith notes, the rich irony of this is that Meta's servers run Linux. The company is public about this, as [7]we have mentioned before – it's one of the biggest known users of CentOS Stream. In first place on the [8]membership list of the CentOS Special Interest Group for large-scale users, called the [9]Hyperscale SIG , is Meta's Davide Cavalca, who has [10]spoken at SCaLE and [11]Red Hat's DevConf about how Meta uses CentOS Stream.
[12]Stargate, smargate. We're spending $60B+ on AI this year, Meta's Zuckerberg boasts
[13]Meta's pay-or-consent model under fire from EU consumer group
[14]Zuck takes a page from Musk: Meta dumps fact-checkers, loosens speech restrictions
[15]Nick Clegg steps down as Meta's top flack in favor of more Trump-friendly candidate
The ban has been [16]mentioned on LWN and is being discussed [17]on Reddit as well as in the [18]Facebook group of [19]LinuxFormat Magazine , where it's reported that the entire Linux Users community has been shut down.
Call us immediately if your child uses Kali Linux, squawks West Mids Police [20]FROM THE ARCHIVES
[21]Facebook famously cut its fact-checking team this year. Instead, it's [22]investing heavily in AI , which tends to mean decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio with LLM bot-generated "slop," as [23]it is now known .
We note that the tools for reporting false and misleading information do remain in place for now – this vulture often spends a therapeutic ten minutes cheerfully reporting anti-vaxxers for sharing false health information. We wonder if those reports now go to an LLM bot rather than a human being, and that some automated systems, ranged in the long caves deep in the bowels of the planet – or at least a Meta datacenter, perhaps [24]one in the fast-melting Arctic – are now blocking mentions of the very OS they're running on.
[25]
The Register asked Meta to comment yesterday, and we are still awaiting a response.
Bootnote
Thanks to Register readers Mark, Keith, and Sean for letting us know about this. ®
Get our [26]Tech Resources
[1] https://distrowatch.com/weekly-mobile.php?issue=20250127#sitenews
[2] https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=contact
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/18/thunderbird_128_nebula/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/30/usenet_revival/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/30/thunderbird_102/
[6] https://mastodon.social/@distrowatch
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/26/almalinux_kitten/
[8] https://sigs.centos.org/hyperscale/sig/membership/
[9] https://sigs.centos.org/hyperscale/
[10] https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x/speakers/davide-cavalca
[11] https://devconfcz2021.sched.com/event/gmOa/centos-stream-at-facebook
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/24/meta_ai_spending/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/23/metas_payorconsent_model_under_fire/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/07/meta_eliminate_fact_check/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/03/nick_clegg_meta/
[16] https://lwn.net/Articles/1006328/
[17] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1i6zt52/meta_banning_distrowatchcom/
[18] https://www.facebook.com/LinuxFormatMagazine/photos/people-are-finding-distrowatch-links-are-being-blocked-by-facebook/1179904630810475/
[19] https://linuxformat.com/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/14/silly_police_infosec_parental_advice_poster/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/07/meta_eliminate_fact_check/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/24/meta_ai_spending/
[23] https://simonwillison.net/2024/May/8/slop/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2013/06/13/facebook_swedish_datacenter/
[25] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z5kNOVPLBgOPLAjC-o4FbgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[26] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Meta got the AI they deserve
With any luck, their AI bot will identify Facebook as a purveyor of false and misleading information & shut the entire network down!
Re: Meta got the AI they deserve
That would me a beautiful thing.
Re: Meta got the AI they deserve
Aw, you beat me to it.....
but it won't happen, 'cause it'd make sense.
I'm gonna assume incompetence
It's not only that Hanlon's razor applies, I can't fathom any reason, even a scummy self-serving one, for Facebook to do that.
Re: I'm gonna assume incompetence
Locking the account of the person complaining about it suggests there's an element of shooting the messenger at least. A more aggravated form of incompetence.
openKylin
Not to defend Facebork at all, but the original [1]deleted post wasn't about Linux generally, but specifically about openKylin, which is a somewhat-shady Chinese Linux distro that er, definitely doesn't contain malware.
The Reg article should have been clearer about that.
What IS extra shitty/incompetent though is that Facebork seem to have extended it to ban distroWatch itself, just because one of their posts was about openKylin
[1] https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20250127#sitenews
Let's make a vow!
> What IS extra shitty/incompetent though is that Facebork seem to have extended it to ban distroWatch itself, just because one of their posts was about openKylin
The next time we find something on Facebook that is "somewhat-shady", I think we should proceed to ban the whole of Facebook. There's clearly precedence being set here.
Re: openKylin
I wondered whether it might have been about systemd.
Could you explain what makes openKilin somehat-shady?
Re: openKylin
> Could you explain what makes openKilin somehat-shady?
Well, duh, it is from China. /s
These days, what more do you need to know? :-(
Re: openKylin
The post starts "New distrowatch weekly talks about OpenKylin, ... "
What is there to clarify ?
Except perhaps, how that explains "Starting on January 19, 2025 Facebook's internal policy makers decided that Linux is malware and labelled groups associated with Linux as being "cybersecurity threats". Any posts mentioning DistroWatch and multiple groups associated with Linux and Linux discussions have either been shut down or had many of their posts removed"
Re: Facebook's internal policy makers decided that Linux is malware
It would be so tempting to write up an order requiring all Linux to be immediately removed from any Facebook server with it installed, get it signed by Facebook's internal policy makers then carry out those instructions.
Re: openKylin
Considering the number of ads I see for unlicensed, bootleg merchandise and the number of posts I got of AI slop movie posters, Facebook drawing the line between the "somewhat-shady" (OpenKylin) and the "actually shady" (bootlegs & slop) is the height of absurdity.
Re: I'm gonna assume incompetence
" I can't fathom any reason "
It's headed up by a foreigner, not an American, and since it's free the orange idiot can't slap tariffs on it..?
Yeah, it's mind numbingly stupid, but that would make it fit right in with The New Normal in our Post Reason Times.
Linux considered to be Malware? (by Facebook)
It certainly makes a change from Windows being so regarded!
Just in case there wasn't enough reasons to use Farcebook, here's another one. I shut down my account at least 8 years ago and haven't missed it one bit.
One step beyond...
I have gone one step further by not ever having opened a Facebook account in the first place.
Mine's the one with the PinePhone in the pocket with my Mastodon feed open in Vivaldi.
Zuckerberg makes a speech declaring a new era of free speech on Facebook 7.1.25
"Hey, everyone. I want to talk about something important today, because it's time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram.
I started building social media to give people a voice. I gave a speech at Georgetown five years ago about the importance of protecting free expression, and I still believe this today. But a lot has happened over the last several years. There’s been widespread debate about potential harms from online content. Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more."
That was a nice tidy 3 week long era of free speech absolutism, before effortlessly ascending to Musk levels of hypocrisy on the subject and instituting bans on truthful reporting.
Re: Zuckerberg makes a speech declaring a new era of free speech on Facebook 7.1.25
"Musk levels of hypocrisy"
doubly so given that Meta is a member of the Linux Foundation.
Don't let them off the hook...
...Zuck is scum, only interested in money and power.
They could fix much of what is wrong with Meta, but over and over it gets blocked at the highest level, because after all, number must go up.
I'll admit it, I'm on there because in the early days it was OK.
Now it's the primary way I find out about live music events.
I'm on Bluesky and it's a joy to only see posts from people I actually want to follow. The problem is it have 90% of the people I follow on there....yet.
Fuck Zuck.
But make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date.
When will it block Zuckerberg?
It is just a matter of random!
Or, maybe, Facebook will block facebook.com links.
Who needs Facebook?
Apart from Mark Zuckerberg, nobody, least of all the planet as a whole. Why even bother reporting the dribblings of something so utterly unneeded and replaceable?
Typical right wing Facebook censorship
Musk will be joining in next censoring speech about himself.
It's only to be expected...
Well, the orange-haired one has done lots of things to move the USA towards fascism, and I think I've seen comments on El Reg expressing that opinion, so it must be true. A fascist state wants control of everything. It can't control Linux, so Linux must be banned. Facebook is only the first...
Coming soon
A META Linux distro with subscriptions (for bits that aren't GPL'd.
Then any links to Distrowatch or to a specific Linux distro will be altered by its AI to point to their distro download.
Zuck can FSCK along with the other billionaires he seems to be in bed with at the moment.