Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com

ThinkingInBinary writes "The other day, I was trying to mention bugmenot.com in my Facebook status, and I discovered to my horror that Facebook blocks the phrase 'bugmenot.com' as "abusive" in status updates, messages, and presumably any other communications on the site. Facebook isn't even listed on BugMeNot, as they requested that logins for Facebook be blocked. This is pretty ridiculous, as I can't even send my friends a message mentioning bugmenot.com!"

Comments

Yes you can

[Hatta]

This is pretty ridiculous, as I can't even send my friends a message mentioning bugmenot.com!

Of course you can, you just can't use Facebook. Which is probably for the best anyway.

Re:Yes you can

[AKAImBatman]

Indeed. I'm trying very hard to get incensed here, but I just can't work up a reason to care. Oh noes! I must say "Bug Me Not website" when talking about BugMeNot! Horror of horrors! Shocker of Shockers! Quick, make a comparison to Nazi totalitarism! Facebook is like... Hitler, that's it!

Conspicuously absent is any mention of negative actions taken by Facebook. They didn't close his account, they didn't sue him, they didn't kick his dog. They didn't do anything other than remove a link to a site. Whoop de do. Try typing a URL into Youtube comments sometime and see how far you get.

Good point, parent

[Kludge]

Allowing a single corporate entity to control your communication is a bad idea. I suggest this new thing called "email", which is offered by a large number of different providers, and not censored by most.

Re:Good point, parent

[TheRaven64]

Or, if you want more immediate communication, there's XMPP, a similarly open standard for instant messaging. I run my own server, but quite a few people on my contacts list use Google's one.

Re:honestly

[Osurak]

Of course they *can* do it. The issue is whether they *should* do it.

Re:another "Do more evil" clone?

[Bieeanda]

Since when has Facebook been about anything but data mining and user tracking?

Gather 'round Papa Jefferson, kiddies.

[OneIfByLan]

Time for remedial Civics, once again. I swear, it's like public schools are even working any more...

The First Amendment wasn't written in a vacuum. It was part of a centuries-old conversation in Europe that took place amongst people like Milton and Rousseau. Let me distill centuries of thought and arument down to a sentence for you.

Hiding the truth is bad.

It's bad when the government does it. It's bad when companies do it. The more power an entity has, the worse it is. Free men should be unafraid and unashamed to speak their minds. Anyone who tries to squelch that speech is evil.

The cure for bad speech is more speech. There needs to be free and open debate on everything, and when there is, only the Truth is strong enough to prevail.

We don't like censorship in this country. We don't like men who try to muzzle people. We don't stop the KKK by forbidding them to speak. We stop them by calling them a group of inbred idiots and laughing at them.

If you want to do public business in this country, then you need to learn to understand the rules. We don't squelch speech here. The Bills of Rights is merely a list of examples. It was made explicit that our freedom in this country is the DEFAULT setting.

It's not that since the First Amendment pertains to government, then companies can squelch speech. It's that nothing GIVES companies the right to do it.

If not even the government has the right to stifle conversation, then it's for damn sure that mere companies can't either.

 

Re:Gather 'round Papa Jefferson, kiddies.

[Irish_Samurai]

Wow, did you fail Civics or what?

The Bill of Rights only lays out what the Government can't do. Exercising powers granted through property rights isn't censorship. No speech was even squelched here. A specific term has been labeled by a filter. The service can be discussed, it can even be linked to through other means - you just can't use "bugmenot.com".

I'm sure you have no problem with this type of thing for your spam filter.