Facebook has blocked Dreamwidth

[andrewducker]

I discovered, about an hour ago, that all of my posts on Facebook which were links to Dreamwidth had vanished. Suddenly gone as if they'd never existed.

I checked with Denise (one of the owners of Dreamwidth) to find out if she knew about it, and discovered that Facebook have stuck Dreamwidth on a block list.

With no explanation as to why, no way to contact them, and no appeal.

This is unbelievably frustrating. And the kind of centralised, autocratic, opaque decision making which I loathe. Tens of thousands of active users, unable to share blog posts with Facebook (which, let's face it, is where most of my friends go for their socialising).

If anyone knows anyone who works at Facebook, do see if you can prod them into getting an explanation...

Edit: All working fine now.

Comments

Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

[doug]

I noped out of Facebook early in the pandemic - it kept showing me frustratingly wrong takes on the virus from people I sort-of knew, and I was spending more and more time carefully explaining things with reliable sources. I'm pretty sure Fb started to clock that this sort of post reliably got more engagement from me. It was getting me more and more wound up, and over and over I would be missing out on the sort of significant news from friends that is why I still stayed on the site. I am really, really pleased to have broken my habit and am not going back.

Approved narrative good; heterodox narrative bad

[andrewskeen]

Must be all the badthink and other thoughtcrime you lot have been committing.

[jack]

The potential for this is why I hate walled gardens :( I submitted a report.

I noticed when I posted links I seemed to get little response but I wasn't sure if that was the way I was doing it without enough extract, or Facebook burying the external links. But now I wonder if Dreamwidth was on a "deprioritise list for some reason, eg some fan war got a post massively reported or something.

[dewline]

About to test this for myself...and confirmed. "Against Community Standards". I've filed a complaint via Facebook's automated appeal-filing tool, and will see what happens. I have posted a complaint about the blockage on my own Facebook page and made it "public" so that everyone on Facebook can see it.

[strange_complex]

I did the debug report, which initially prompted a message saying "We can't review this website because the content doesn't meet our Community Standards. If you think this is a mistake, please let us know." I followed the 'let us know' bit, which was a link, and was able to submit a report there in a text box. I'm not very optimistic, but at least we've tried something.

[rhythmaning]

Jesus! That's awful. And very creepy. The lack of transparency is disgusting.

"We can't review this website because the content doesn't meet our Community Standards. If you think this is a mistake, please let us know."

Reported!

Fuck that.

[inamac]

I could almost understand them blocking AO3, but not DW. I wonder about IJ, which my current browser marks as an unsafe site.

[cmcmck]

This is why I stick to this 'ere and not that there...............

[mountainkiss]

Heh. I'm playing for the other team here. I was just about to stop following here and revert to seeing the posts on FB, because I struggle so with the automated cross-posting. Very unsure what to do now! Really hope you can get it sorted.

[ironymaiden]

I tried to make a text post about this issue on my facebook page with a link to the debugger AND THEY BLOCKED IT.

[alexanderr]

you could, in principle, solve the problem by shortening all your links to dreamwidth.
using tiny url, for example, or a similar service. this has already been verified as a working approach.
until, of course, facebook figures that one out as well. they can ban all shortened urls,
or they could start looking where they lead

[jjhunter]

Thanks - I've provided a response re: the blocking issue for Dreamwidth in general & your DW journal in particular at the Facebook url you provided.

[captainsblog]

It appears that the banhammer has been lifted.