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
Oh well, it’s only facebook and only linux.
There are far more important things to worry about and to do.
"They came first for the distros. But I didn’t speak up, because it was only Facebook and only Linux. "
Never had a FB account never will.
I haven’t logged into Facebook in over a decade, can’t even remember the login email. Can’t be arsed to jump through hoops to ask for it to be deleted.
Can’t imagine why anyone would willingly make a fb page today.
Many towns use Facebook to post information about meetings, elections, events, etc., and they don’t post it anywhere else. Unfortunately you can only look at a page for so long before they make you log in. So without an account you could miss stuff.
Are you seriously applying a fight for rights for people to software? LMAO.
What a ridiculous thing to do.
There are certainly are bigger issues in the world right now, sure, but it isnt about “rights for software”, it is about the ability people to talk about what they want (in this case, software)
If you think this isn’t related to human rights, then you’ve missed the point.
People have the right to use technology, and indeed we effectively need technology to exercise our right to free speech. You cannot have one without the other. Not anymore.
The right way to think about this that they are arbitrarily banning a topic of discussion simply because it is not dead-center average. This isn’t even a legal issue, and the justification is utter nonsense (Facebook itself runs on Linux, like >90% of the internet). No government has officially asked them to do this, though the timing suggests that it is unofficially from the Trump administration.
This is about exerting control, establishing precedent, and applying a chilling effect to anything not directly aligned with their interests. This obviously extends to human rights issues. This is a test run.
Okay, thanks for explaining.
Boiling frog. It’s easier to start oppressing people when you start suppressing their rights, so gradually, it’s barely noticeable.
And I know Meta is a private company, they have their right to “moderate” what is discussed on their platform. But saddly, Facebook is still a big player in the social media landscape.
I still can’t tell if this is sarcasm.
If they’re doing this to Linux they’re likely doing the same for other topics. And it’s not just Facebook that’s going downhill like this
Point well taken, thanks.
Hope you’re being glib-- because censoring an open-source, more privacy-minded, and alternative operating system to Big Corpo is only an excuse and the continuation.
Well, my point was that it’s funny that people who likely never lift a finger to help people in other ways suddenly come out of the woodwork when it’s technology they like. But yeah, I see your point, it isn’t great that folks won’t learn about it on their walled garden social media and hopefully that might lead them to escape it.
Weird that you assume nobody who supports FOSS is helpful to any other leftist causes.
Kinda wedge-like.
wedge-like?
You know, like, targeting leftist solidarity and looking for anywhere and everywhere to drive wedges. Wedge-like.
Oh my intent was the opposite. But fair enough.
I’m curious how this approach is meant to achieve solidarity. Can you elaborate on your thinking?
It was more of a call out to people that only care about foss and nothing else, a challenge.
I in general do not think most of the foss community is good because they have shown themselves time and time again to be overly protective of it and themselves in opposition to what most people actually need from software or other things.
It has some very worrying views politically which likely stem from abusers like stallman and that we live under such a myopic, self centered system such as capitalism and so this leads people to have a very blinkered view on what is important, often times, sadly foss obsessives are smug know-it-alls who tell you that if you don’t like it then just fork it or to go back to windows etc, instead of actually being helpful. Not to mention many of them have very bigoted views.
They do not see that foss could be more liberatory if they actually pulled their heads out of their ego and took a more community based approach. I get that some are like this and I am grateful, but I’ve been told many times no without any justification given or given bizzare workarounds that do not actually fix the problem and so had to basically abandon the software they claim is good because it no longer works for its supposed purpose. FOSS is no less hierarchical or authoritarian than other software inherently as many times unhelpful changes are forced upon users without their consent and it can be difficult to change back or disable, but people like to pretend it is for some reason.
Part of the problem with it is that we all live in a system where the developers need money to live and so will refuse point blank to help if they are not paid which sadly leads to them mostly supporting companies and not what people say foss is actually useful for: the common person. So it is as subject to them whims of capitalism as anything else but people like to pretend it is not for some reason.
People do need to eat and so it is good if they are paid, but I wonder how many people actually do so and how much developers care if they do unless they are getting the big bucks from them somehow.
The point therefore is that foss on its own is not as liberatory as people seem to think it is and it is more that people who only care about foss this was directed at.
I use linux and other foss things daily, but I do not think they are as good as they could be because they are actively hostile to people’s needs and to devs too (see the kernel rust incident), this is why I find it a bit silly to care about linux compared to other things, but if people do care about both then that is good.
Also sadly, having more people in the community with more diverse needs and views does not inherently shift many developers and they double down more, so I did not think having facebook censor it was neither here nor there as to whether foss was or could be good or not.
I do understand now that maybe that was presumptious of me but for other reasons unrelated to linux and foss itself and more to the discussions people might have and how much those are allowed or not.
also i can multitask damn it :|
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I can care about multiple things at once, is all; I can think about “frivolous” stuff along with other topics considered “far more important.”
Yeah, thank you for explaining 🙂
Linux, and libre software in general, is one of the few impactful tools available to maintain (or reclaim) the sovereignty of our communications, data, and access to the online world. Those things lie at the core of practically everything in our lives, from employment to education to laws to basic human necessities. Given how significantly freedom is being eroded lately, I can’t think of many things more important in the long run.
Yes, but many foss is just created with those already in the know about what it does in mind.
FOSS has historically and continues to be unhelpful to many people coming into it. There’s often no beginner level tutorials built in, no easily accessible communities that do not have at least one smug asshole that is utterly unhelpful saying things like “just fork it” or “it’s not for you”.
So if FOSS ever wants to actually position itself as helpful for the common person it needs a lot more people prepared to write these tutorials etc and build them into the software itself, not just assume internet access or that such things can be found online.
The biggest one is the terminal. As far as I’m aware it does not come with a tutorial built in ever on any distro. It does not on first opening it say “hey, here are the things you can do” because the developers do not consider that people might be entirely unfamiliar with such things and/or nobody wishes to write one or include it even if it is written.
So yes, foss is good for freedom but at the expense of having support built in to get people started, unlike many closed sourced software things. I don’t therefore see how it is useful to people that have no clue how to get started with it, thus often sending them back to the very things FOSS says they should escape.