Social Fixer Falls Victim To Facebook Legal Threats

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.

Re:The first rule of AdBlock...

[Samantha Wright]

Facebook makes about $16/year/user [techcrunch.com] in English-speaking North America—and it's believed that about 10% of all web traffic is ad-blocked [clarityray.com]. I'm guessing there are some other people at Facebook who are aware of this situation!

Re:Just another reason not to use The Face Book

[epine]

part of the problem, not the solution

This kind of logic is itself part of the problem. It presumes that people are engaged in the political dimensions of their life activities everywhere and always. Now perhaps you think the world would be a better place if this were true, and you might have the view—from within the confines of your evidently narrow and sheltered life—that we all have limitless capacity to politicize our every twitch and sneeze. But we don't, and it's not effective.

I have a range of issues where I'm especially well placed (though aptitude, knowledge, experience, and social connections) to speak out loudly and effectively. The rest of the time, like everyone else, I'm merely trying to get through life without succumbing to death by paper cut. Facebook is a cancer, so I don't go there at all, but if I did, I wouldn't regard Social Fixer as part of the problem. I'd regard it as a dry pair of socks, so I could live to hike another day.

But sure, if your boots pinch, burn your socks. It's true: you won't ever buy a bad-fitting pair of boots ever again. Too bad about those refrigerated vaccines you were trekking into a remote African village. Better luck next year.

Re:ill tell you how to fix it

[Isaac Remuant]

You have slashdot account and you voice your opinions and activities in it (telling us what you do and don't have). If that's not social I don't know what is.

Comments like

if the niggers in the ghetto were not such a bunch of criminal gangstas then racism would not be an issue,

the bleeding heart liberals and ghetto niggers can holler "racism" all they want, and i will holler "go to hell nigger gangster" because i have a right to know where the danger zones are despite it being populated with mostly trashy criminal niggers

and many, MANY others can be data mined and tied to you (don't think a pseudonym and alternative mail account do much in the way of privacy).

You have absolutely no grounds on telling other people what to do or giving advice about "not getting used by the internet".