Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Adds Malicious Link Protection
wiredmikey writes "As any IT security department knows, social networks pose a significant threat to users across the board as they blindly click links which often lead to spam or other malicious sites that could result in malware infection. In a move to further protect users of the world's largest social networking site, Facebook is adding a new feature to help protect users from links to these malicious sites. Starting today, when a Facebook user clicks on a link it will be checked against a database from Websense in an attempt to determine if the link is malicious. If the link is determined to be risky, the user will be given the choice to continue at their own risk, return to the previous screen, or get more information on why it was flagged as suspicious."
Sure, it might be used for blocking malicious links now.. but what about when competing social networks, like Diaspora, emerge? Looking at Facebook's history I'm sure they will use it to block users moving to Diaspora and reading about Diaspora. It will be used as an opinion suppression tool.