I assume Facebook runs on Linux, as does the rest of the internet?
I wish Linux distros use a license that prevents this nonsense.
(I know including ethics in a license is a bad idea, but still...)
“Linux for me, not for thee”
They need the serfs to be hapless surveillance targets, not power users with technological agency.
technological agency.
Such a good term for it.
You will own nothing and be happy.
Are you also assuming that the idi... fine individuals that decide the content policy have any idea how Facebook works?
Did not expect “Linux users” to be this early in the stanzas of “First they came for the […]”
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.
Are we the illuminati?
Are we the baddies?
No, no, we're not the... wait what distro you running?
My conspiracy theory: Meta has an AI that scans articles/the internet for threats and then adjusts the filters for Facebook. The AI just read the story that some Games companies are blocking Linux clients, because they see them as unsafe. The AI just copied what it read.
I agree. It's like Occam's Razor, but with stupidity instead of simplicity: the most stupid reason is the most likely.
Macco's Razor. The stupidest possible explanation is probably the right answer.
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or incompetence).
This works for individuals, but when it comes to corporations, you really have to ask, why not both?
Schrodinger's Razor:
The answer is both really smart and really stupid, but you won't know which until you look at the source.
Microsoft's Schrodinger's Razor
The answer is both really smart and really stupid, but you won't know which until you look at the source, and you can't view it.
Sometimes it's both. As a software dev, I've seen ingenious solutions (heroics, we call them) for problems that could've (and should've) been solved a much simpler way, but wasn't because the dev didn't have the needed context. So both incredibly smart and incredibly dumb.
That's the reason I got out of programming. Spending days reinventing the concept of the wheel so you can then reinvent the wheel, and as soon as you finish someone looks at your code and says "why didn't you just add 1 here?"
I didn't make enough money to maintain a drug habit that would have allowed me to keep my sanity.
This is the opposite of a conspiracy. More of an incompetence theory.
I wonder if microsoft asked them to do this, either way this is something that shouldnt be ignored. Its basically direct attack and their endgoal might be to make regular people hate or fear linux. That in turn could be used to influence laws and try to ban or limit linux to corporate use only. Computers have become so integral part of society that by controlling the operating system you control the people.
I don't think it was Microsoft, in the past few years they've been being a little chill towards Linux.
As for being an attack, even if they wanted to, they couldn't get rid of Linux. Even the US government can't tell people to stop using it. I mean, they can tell people to stop, but there's no practical way for them to enforce such a law. Most distros out there also distribute via torrent, so even if you took down the websites for all the distros, you couldn't stop the distribution of the ISOs. Not to mention, if they outlawed or restricted Linux, I can't think of anything that would absolutely make the Linux users become very rebellious. Imagine the majority of the hackers, white, gray, and black hat, all of a sudden becoming very angry with the US government. It would be absolute chaos.
Not to mention, there are corporations like Valve and Ubuntu that have invested millions into Linux. I don't believe for a second they would just lay down and not fight the government outlawing something that has become very lucrative for them.
I will dig out my old tails drive just out of spite if they do that.
it shouldnt be allowed to go there because it might not be reversable by then. I wish I was just paranoid but way the world is going makes this very plausible.
By the time things like that become evident its like trying to stop a boulder that has been gaining momentum for a while, which is why I wish people were more active about doing something instead of waiting until there is clear evidence that something should be done. This kind of wasnt a direct reply to content of your comment, sorry
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?
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.
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.
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"
I am reminded about the catchphrase for GrayJay: Follow Creators, Not Platforms
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.
Sure but those links to sketchy .apk games of which the ad for them involves rape or kidnapping usually are a-okay
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 ͡°)
Are there really that many Linux users discussing on Facebook? My brothers in Open Source, there are much better places even without this ban…
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?
That and Linux is kind of like a software implementation of socialism and it's been a smashing success.
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.
Clown show, one of the reason to not to use proprietary software
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
