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.
[…]
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.
[…]
Addition to include the DistroWatch link: https://distrowatch.com/weekly-mobile.php?issue=20250127#sitenews
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…
Clown show, one of the reason to not to use proprietary software
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
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”
This is a hilarious thought, because you know Windows Chad couldn’t get through two sentences before vomiting out something about AI “Linux can’t even have Copilot baked into the fiber of every piece of the system like Windows does, Linux is just an old fashioned computer.”
Might be the one thing that would actually bring the year of the Linux desktop.
Sure but those links to sketchy .apk games of which the ad for them involves rape or kidnapping usually are a-okay
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.
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”
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.
a communist os
That’s exactly what it is
Probably not in the sense that the average American uses the word “communist”, which is more about their remembered history of authoritarian regimes of the USSR and mid 20th century China and those sorts. Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and the atrocities thereof.
Linux is communist insofar as it is open source, and therefore less affected or tied up in capitalistic practices. Capitalists still use and contribute to Linux, but often those contributions go back into the commons of the open source code.
You probably know all that, I’m just feeling long winded.
Okay that gave me a hearty chuckle, thank you.
You’re not referring to this satire article by chance?
It could be if it’s really old but yeah whatever it was it was Google’s top result if you searched linux in Google for quite a while. I think the one I read was a bit more malicious and less Jokey about it.
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?
To be fair, Meta is the only US based AI player that open sources their models. Fuck meta in general, but it’s hard to say that they are wholly opposed to open source.
That and Linux is kind of like a software implementation of socialism and it’s been a smashing success.
Did not expect “Linux users” to be this early in the stanzas of “First they came for the […]”
The powers that be know the threat free software is to their control.
Richard Stallman was right when he said “free software, free society.”
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.
I think we’re about to see FOSS under siege by the technocrats, and it’s going to be depressingly effective since most people have no idea why it’s so fundamentally important to the world of tech.
Are we the illuminati?
Are we the baddies?
No, no, we’re not the… wait what distro you running?
Chrome OS
Quick, get em bois
I’m running the one true distribution, SCO
Neo, The matrix has you
Gentoo on desktop.
Weird and shitty, but who gives a fuck about Facebook?
Everyone over the age of 45 and is not tech inclined
How many of them give a fuck about Linux?
Those who need it the most. Imagine them just asking questions about what this Linux thing is to their friends.
among the not tech inclined? not many i’d reckon
Ehh, we still have family and HOA’s that only use Facebook.
hell, my kid’s school still uses Twitter to communicate that the busses have left.
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?
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.
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.
CORPO-FOSS WAR
The great prophet @pmjv@lemmy.sdf.org has warned us for this.
