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> Facebook can no longer stake any preposterous claim to "help people connect better". Why not? Facebook does help billions of people connect better. Yes, it i

> Facebook can no longer stake any preposterous claim to "help people connect better". Why not? Facebook does help billions of people connect better. Yes, it is a business entity and what's wrong with that? Does this make it inherently evil? Do non business entity do a better job at "making the world a better place"? Look at the latest NSA scandal to get an idea. At least we're not forced to pay Facebook with our tax money like we do with the NSA. But sure, business are the devil. Oh, and to stay on topic, if you want to be mad at something, be mad at those dictators forcing people to use TOR, not Facebook. TOR is also a great tools for spammers and Facebook has to fight spam too if it wants to survive as a business.

yuvadam 13y ago
Throwing millions of legitimate users, who require Tor for their safety, under the bus is evil, yes. Facebook has plenty of ways to fight spam besides blacklisting Tor exit node IPs, exactly as it has done up until now.
- unreal37 13y ago
  "Millions" of people use Tor? You can make an argument for anonymity without resorting to hyperbole.
  - rpedroso 13y ago
    "Using free software, Tor has enabled roughly 36 million people around the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity." http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced
    - patrickaljord 13y ago
      The fsf is against the use of Facebook, so quoting them on using Tor to access Facebook is kind of funny. Plus, I doubt those 36 million people are all activists. Actually, the article itself says thousands, not millions.
betterunix 13y ago
Yes, however will Facebook fight spam without blocking Tor... http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html
- pronoiac 13y ago
  Fighting spam based on the content is a great idea. I don't think it's sufficient for the web. Specifically, email spam and spam on the web have different characteristics: with email, you try to send more, so there's a tendency for keeping it short. On the web, you can go on; you want to skip spam filters, because more people can run across it, and you can get more google juice. You can pull in a big corpus of well-formed sentences, and randomly draw dozens from that. There may be specific topics that get more spam on Facebook, but I have no idea how much overlap there is with Facebook at large.

yuvadam 13y ago

Throwing millions of legitimate users, who require Tor for their safety, under the bus is evil, yes. Facebook has plenty of ways to fight spam besides blacklisting Tor exit node IPs, exactly as it has done up until now.

unreal37 13y ago
"Millions" of people use Tor? You can make an argument for anonymity without resorting to hyperbole.
- rpedroso 13y ago
  "Using free software, Tor has enabled roughly 36 million people around the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity." http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced
  - patrickaljord 13y ago
    The fsf is against the use of Facebook, so quoting them on using Tor to access Facebook is kind of funny. Plus, I doubt those 36 million people are all activists. Actually, the article itself says thousands, not millions.

betterunix 13y ago

Yes, however will Facebook fight spam without blocking Tor... http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

pronoiac 13y ago
Fighting spam based on the content is a great idea. I don't think it's sufficient for the web. Specifically, email spam and spam on the web have different characteristics: with email, you try to send more, so there's a tendency for keeping it short. On the web, you can go on; you want to skip spam filters, because more people can run across it, and you can get more google juice. You can pull in a big corpus of well-formed sentences, and randomly draw dozens from that. There may be specific topics that get more spam on Facebook, but I have no idea how much overlap there is with Facebook at large.