Facebook users’ outrage is mounting toward the social network for an exploit that is currently turning unsuspecting users’ newsfeeds into unstoppable torrents of hardcore pornography and gory, violent pictures.
UPDATE: Facebook now claims to have closed its browser exploit and cleaned up the spam. Facebook had confirmed the problem November 15th and assented that the gore-porn-linkspam exploit is a coordinated attack and their engineers were “working on the self-XSS vulnerability in the browser.” If your account has been compromised try this tutorial to fix it. /Update
It started a few days ago, and right now is becoming an out of control exploit that has users angry and disgusted, while seemingly mocking Facebook’s notorious conservative content controls.
Earlier today the Christian Post published an outraged and disgusted item saying that Facebook had become a pit for violent and pornographic photos - and as it turns out, they were among the first to detail an exploit that is turning Facebook into the graphic horror of 4Chan/b.
A linkspam virus with the usual bait - Kim Kardashian, etc. - is luring users into clicking media-rich links, now more available thanks to Facebook’s recent timeline upgrades. Once clicked, their feeds become vectors for images containing hardcore sex, extreme violence, gore and death.
Many people are pointing fingers at Anonymous, but no claim has been made for the attack.
Anon is more than a whipping post for this one; a while back Anonymous announced intentions to take Facebook out for a variety of reasons, with a November 5 attack of some kind in the works, and rumors of a “Guy Fawkes virus” - none of which have been confirmed via usual routes (such as Anon press releases).
No matter who is behind it, the Facebook attack is extreme, and spiraling out of control.
On Twitter, Facebook users are venting no small amount of disgust - not necessarily at the porn, but most certainly at the bashed-in heads of corpses, photos of dead babies and animals, and yes, the overlarge penises and graphic scenes of penetration that have flooded streams.
The style of images is very much along the lines of 4Chan/b, which is where the genesis of Anonymous occurred.
For many it is too much, and users are avoiding the site and facing down the chore of deactivating their accounts to prevent assaulting friends, family and coworkers with unwanted imagery.
According to realtime search on Twitter, the Christian Post and now Gawker, the gore-porn virus has been gathering steam for the past few days.
Having your feed hijacked with gross stuff is no walk in the park, though some of us are less troubled by adult imagery than others. Facebook itself is known for being far more prudish than most of its users. That’s worth nothing when looking at the overall attack.
Meaning, while I tire of Facebook’s hypocrisies around adult content, it is quite a comment to see an exploit enacted with a bizarrely clever slap at the one thing Facebook is such an extreme hypocrite about.
The content of the imagery in its context was obviously well considered. In this, if intentional, this seems to me a much more direct attack on Facebook - the company - rather than an attack on its users.
So if you see your boss, your granny, or Sarah Palin posting hardcore porn or dead kittens on Facebook - you can blame it on the exploit. For now.
