Why does Facebook block links to hoax-busting websites?
Fighting the plethora of Internet nonsense that spreads daily on Facebook is certainly no easy task. And that task isn’t made easier when Facebook themselves block the very sites trying to help its users.
They say a lie can travel half way across the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoelaces (an adage that is ironically misattributed to a number of people). And the last thing the truth needs is Facebook hiding its shoes.
We still remember the first time Facebook blocked ThatsNonsense a few years ago. It was an entire ban on our website, meaning any Facebook post containing any of our articles could not be posted, since – according to Facebook – our site put users “at risk of being spammed“.
Yeah, cheers Facebook!
Thankfully, with the help of a number of other scam-debunking websites across the globe, we finally caught Facebook’s attention and the block was removed. No explanation ever came across our doorstep as to why it happened in the first place.
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Since then our articles and the articles of other debunking websites have continually had specific articles banned or flagged, substantially reducing their reach and impacting their ability to help others. And at the same time blatant spam often accruing hundreds of thousands of shares and likes are left to spread unfettered.
Last week our YouTube video explaining to our subscribers how scammers were exploiting the news of the upcoming dislike/empathy option was totally banned on Facebook (twice) because, apparently, the video was “detected to be unsafe“. In fact at the time of writing the video still is banned, despite our persistent reports.
A link to one of our videos is completely banned.
We’re not sure exactly how any YouTube video could pose a direct security risk since it is – after all – hosted on YouTube. But again no explanation was forthcoming.
But it’s not just us. Our friends at Hoax-Slayer.com also had one of their articles about scammers exploiting the dislike option flagged by Facebook, forcing visitors to confirm they indeed wanted to visit the link since “a problem was detected“.
The link after clicking a Hoax-Slayer article
In the meantime a number of spam links actually exploiting the upcoming dislike button to trick visitors into completing spammy surveys were able to circulate prolifically, unhindered.
Of course it could be Facebook’s various spam filters messing up, but things took a somewhat more sinister appearance recently when Hoax-Slayer posted an article condemning Facebook for their inability to remove those abhorrent posts that exploit children by claiming “shares = donations” along with images of sick or disabled children or in some cases children who have since passed away. And Facebook’s response? They continued to refuse to remove such exploitative posts, but they did block the Hoax-Slayer article (now lifted.)
There is – and has been for some time – an inconsistency to what Facebook considers acceptable or unacceptable, and what it deems safe or unsafe. Whatever the reason for the continued failures on their behalf, I think we can all agree that it’s time Facebook sorted this all out.
So, Facebook – stop blocking articles clearly designed to help users and start clamping down on spammy links and posts that exploit sick children.
We hope you enjoyed our rant. Assuming you managed to get here okay.
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