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Social Fixer Falls Victim To Facebook Legal Threats

Posted by timothy on from the which-battles-to-fight dept.

rueger writes "The author of the very excellent Social Fixer browser plug-in is bowing to legal threats from Facebook and removing the core functionality that made his tool so great. I like Social Fixer a lot. It makes Facebook at least three or four times more usable. The author, Matt Kruse, says 'Any threat of legal action is a big deal. I am a one-man operation. If I were sued for whatever reason, I would find it very difficult to defend myself, even if it was without merit. I would be risking my personal life to maintain a tabbed news feed for users. As much as I'd like to be your Robin Hood, I just can't do that to my family.' Bizarrely, when he asked Facebook why they don't also threaten Ad-Block, the Facebook rep claimed to have never heard of it." Kruse has some surprisingly nice things to say about his interaction with Facebook, too. Reader Daniel Dvorkin points out this commentary at BuzzFeed which points out Twitter's similar policies.

8 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Open Source the Tab Code by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It started as a GreaseMonkey script, why can't that particular functionality be open sourced? The few times a month I'm forced to go on Facebook I make sure my Social Fixer is up to date, especially since I want to be signed out of chat automatically. Having all the games and apps on a separate tab is nice too. - HEX

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    Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
    1. Re:Open Source the Tab Code by bmo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sure, open source fixes everything. Except, you know, legal threats.

      Legal threats only work where there is some way to get them enforced. If someone picks this up in a country where legal threats from Facebook means bupkis, then yes, Open Source does fix this.

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      BMO

    2. Re:Open Source the Tab Code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It started as a GreaseMonkey script, why can't that particular functionality be open sourced? The few times a month I'm forced to go on Facebook I make sure my Social Fixer is up to date, especially since I want to be signed out of chat automatically. Having all the games and apps on a separate tab is nice too. - HEX

      Sure, open source fixes everything. Except, you know, legal threats.

      The threats have nothing to do with the browser extension itself, which Facebook cannot control any more than they can control Firefox or Chrome. They can only control a web page on Facebook about the extension. Apparently, the author of the extension wants to have that page so badly, he's willing to cripple the extension. I don't someone that weak-willed deserves much sympathy.

    3. Re:Open Source the Tab Code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree with you, but as long as Matt is contributing code to the project, he's a target for Facebook. If he retires, open-sources it, and lets the community take over development, he's personally off the hook and the project will most undoubtedly continue.

      Personally I want to see the EFF agree to become his legal representation and Matt agree to keep the extension intact in the face of Facebook's threats.

  2. THE Matt Kruse!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whoa, that name was oddly familiar, and then it hit me - he ran the first ray-tracing competition, back in the great POV-Ray era.

    http://www.mattkruse.com/raytracing/?bwf0d=12778

  3. Retaliation by BigBadBus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I use Social Fixer all the time and while I haven't used any of the exotic features like tabbing that people are so enamoured with, I can see how they could be a great boon to some users. But I feel that Kruse is being naive in asking people to respond to his comments about Social Fixer and Facebook's demands. When his Social Fixer page was eradicated, he and his admin staff were suspended by Facebook. By venting their spleen on his current page, users are identifying themselves and do you really think Facebook will think twice about deleting a couple of hundred or thousand of disgruntled people? Of course not. Thats why I don't reply to the Social Fixer forums on Facebook. God knows who is monitoring the conversations!

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    My web domain.
  4. ill tell you how to fix it by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    QUIT USING FACEBOOK!!!

    i dont have a facebook account, no twitter account. no myspace account, i refuse to sign up to some lamer social network and spill my guts about my personal life to the world, if you knew my real name and googled it you wont find any information about me, no photos of me, because i refuse to upload that information to the internet, you have to learn to use the internet without letting the internet use you

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    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  5. Re:ABP is easily blocked. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    True.

    With me, any site which blocks ad blocker gets visited exactly once.

    Not through some personal policy or soap box theory, but simply because it's too big a pain in the ass to screw with my browser settings, and the internet is permanently filled with alternative options. It is extremely rare that a site will have something which is actually so unique that I can't get it somewhere else in under three seconds.