Facebook, which has heretofore managed to maintain a family friendly reputation, suffered a setback earlier this week when explicit and violent images began to show up on the site. According to news reports, hackers were able to exploit a security weakness to spread images which included “hardcore porn; photoshopped images of celebrities, including teen pop star Justin Bieber, in sexual positions; ‘extreme violence;’ and at least one image of an abused dog.” Images of this nature can be extremely disturbing and numerous victims of the scam have expressed outrage and intent to deactivate their accounts.
Facebook users whose accounts were hacked were unable to see the images that are being posted on their friends walls…even though the images appeared to be coming from their account activity. According to Facebook, “the spam attack all started with users being tricked into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their browser’s URL bar.” Some are suggesting that the security flaw was limited to a particular browser…specifically Internet Explorer. In any case, one lesson to be learned is to not click on links from questionable sources, and never copy and paste code into your browser’s URL bar.
Some suspected the hackivist group Anonymous who earlier had warned [YouTube] of a cyber-attack on Facebook for their policies which compromise users’ privacy. However, as of today Anonymous has not taken credit for this event and a new post on ZDNet claims that Facebook has identified the source of the attack.
If you think your Facebook account has been compromised, here’s a link to steps to take to try to restore order.
This makes me mad! I don’t understand why people have to ruin something good. What is the purpose of blowing up Facebook with such images, making people out to look like something their not. I think twice about someone when I see certain posts from them, not keeping in mind that this might have been the work of a hacker. But I mean what joy do hackers get out of loading people’s profiles with such posts? I saw the movie Hackers a couple years ago that is very relatable to this issue. In the movie people hacked into others computers simply cause they could but doing that cause stress on people depending on what is being effected, especially if that malicious link leads to a potential virus. I’m pretty sure one hacker wouldn’t want another hacker to stick a virus on their computer so why would they do it to someone else. Facebook’s reputation has be tarnished a little because of people that seek entertainment out of messing with others.
I personally I have not had this happen to me, but we all knew this would happen at one point. The internet and the separate websites have and will all be affected by spam at some time. This is unfortunate but it happens all the time. I truly do not think that we can ever stop hackers from hacking in unless all websites adopt military and government types of security. But of course they would not want to do this because it would make the consumers go through extra measures to log in.
Fortunately I didn’t have a problem with this on my Facebook. Then again, this is another prime example of people having nothing better to do than wate their lives on social networking sites. Facebook is a great place to keep in touch with friends, family and even work but it also attracts people that post disturbing images like these guys. If you want to post things like those disturbing images then that’s what MySpace was left in the dust for. Any type of social network could be hacked so at least Facebook took the necessary steps to correct the problem and look out for it happening again. The user also needs to be careful. Those little advertisements on the sides could potentially have issues like this within them and this is why I don’t have any apps on my Facebook like Farmville, not just becuase I find those posts annoying anyway but to keep my chances of getting hacked minimal.
I remember when these images started appearing on Facebook and my first reaction was wow I cant believe that was able to be seen on the site. I remember one of them that was on my friends wall that seemed harmless and funny so I clicked on it then it started spamming others with sexual things to my friends which was very embarrassing. There was obviously some security and privacy flaws but hopefully now they have corrected them to keep the site clean for every demographic.
I don’t understand why someone feels the need to go around hacking into people’s facebooks and putting these pictures on their facebooks. There’s really no point behind it. What good is coming out of hacking someone’s facebook and placing these pictures on them. I also believe that people should be a bit more careful when they are clicking on stuff, if they don’t recognize the site then they shouldn’t be clicking on to it. Even though Facebook is doing their best to prevent all this hacking, there is only so much they can do. But if they do not get this under control people are going to stop logging on and using their facebooks.
You know the thing about this is that i have a facebook account and i heard about this happening but not once did i see any disturbing images on my wall and or my newsfeed. i did however see disturbing images on my friends account. im not really sure what rendered me from seeing them but i was happy that i was not hacked. people today need to learn how to stop opening all of these files that they have no business coming in contact with and they should stop posting all of their business on facebook because it gives hackers a clue on how to can login to someone else’s page. I also feel that if people see this as a major problem all they really have to is close the account and or deactivate it. sociall networks are gettng out of hand and the more messed up people say they are the more people are signing up for one so really they only have themselve’s to blame.
People are complaining about seeing stuff that you signed up for. Yes i know that intentionally most people did not sign up for a Facebook account to see obscure photos how ever you have the choice of owning an account where millions of people can have access to your information and have access to show you any information that they want. Why people want to show other people Justin Biber doing incorporate things is way over my head.i really do believe social networking is very bad for our generation because it makes it ok for us to portray our self as someone else on the internet then who we really are.I am actually kind of glad that things like this are happening because its starting to make more people realize what social networking can really be about and they will begin deleting their accounts.people really have no reason to complain though if they don’t want to see those images all they have to do is simply not go on Facebook.
Personally I have never seen or had violent or indecent pictures show up on my Facebook. But I have heard about others who have had this problem. There are even people I know that have had to create a whole new Facebook account because there was so much spam on, or being sent from their page. However, I do believe Facebook, in general, has done a pretty good job of containing this unavoidable problem. I think anyone who had a Myspace account back before the whole “Facebook Era” can agree that the spam on that social network was far more common than what you see on Facebook today, or at least that’s what I have noticed in my experience.
I hate when i go to log into facebook and the first thing i see is these indescent pictures that show up on the newsfeed. I think that the hackers doing this are immature and probabaly find it all as a joke. I think that facebook is a targeted place for hackers because it is a site that an enormous amount of people use. I have heard some people find it funny and some people find it extremely annoying to the point where they want to delete the person or people that they see it coming from. I think that the facebook users need to be more cautious of what they click on and what they are putting into their url bar. Facebook also needs to have a better and secure program to prevent things like this happening.
There seems to be a line that is forming when it comes to networking sites that have functions and dysfunctions within themselves. One dysfunction is the lack of privacy that the new stream and timeline that Facebook has added. When hackers add explicit pictures like the half-naked girls that no one knows, there wouldn’t normally be any way for you to see it but now if one friend likes the picture it will show on your stream. This doesn’t only happen with explicit pictures but there is also a constant stream to people you may not what to know your business that will unless you ask each of your friends to become private. This is exceedingly difficult. I feel like this also relates to the article about the Supreme Court wanting to censor all broad casts. Should there be privacy limitations so that if one of your friends, friends gets hacked you won’t have to see these explicit pictures? My opinion is based on how I do not want people who are not my friends to see a picture or status I have commented on. Recently a picture of the way an abortion is executed was on my page. Being pro-choice I don’t mind others having an option but at the same time I felt horrified.
its sad to see hackers go and infiltrate big companies just like facebook and ruin the fun. Even if when the companies try to patch the problem up and think it will be ok in the end, its actually not. Hackers like the fact that the company tries to patch what they broke, it gives them the challenge to break it again.
I have never seen the pictures that the article talks about, and I know that Facebook works hard to keep its image as clean as possible. Even if dirty pictures show up on my wall, I wouldn’t just end my account over that. This is America and people have a right to see certain things, and I wouldn’t want companies infringing on those rights, but same sense people have a right nor to see those images either.
The images that were being shown on Facebook were in all truth disturbing. The reason why is because when you look at your newsfeed you’re used to seeing just images of your friends and all that, but when someones posting naked pictures or any graphic picture it takes all the comfort ability away because you’re not looking at what you’re used to. You can say the only good thing about it, is it keeps you off Facebook for a while because you don’t wanna see those images that hackers are posting. Which i think is good because some people spend way too much time on computers anyway.
This is defintely unfortuante because as you said, Facebook maintained a family friendly reputation. However, this was bound to happen eventually. When people are so engrossed and hooked on facebook it makes it a hot target for hackers or other hooligans on the internet. People have entire social lives and friendships on facebook and that makes it a juicy target for hackers to try and cause chaos and commotion. I saw a youtube video where fox was covering a local youth who had his MySpace hacked some years ago and his personal friendships were damaged because someone hacked his account and posted gay pornographic images on his profile. Hopefully Facebook fixes whatever technical security flaws they may have.
I’ve never been had spamming occur through my facebook profile, but several of my friends’ pages were hacked and I received spam from them. Never opened it though. It’s rare that I’ve seen spam happen on facebook. Facebook constantly beefs up its security so as to prevent frequent spam as well as keep it’s members from leaving.
Facebook did a relatively good job of containing and dealing with issues regarding shock images that were posted. There hasn’t been an overly large outcry over this problem (to my knowledge), and for good reason. This is the first time something like this has happened to Facebook in all its years of existence and, as stated before, it was handled quickly and efficiently. As for Anonymous as a collective group claiming responsibility, the idea is laughable. Though Anonymous itself is a large group, it lacks the ability to launch a unified attack in a large scale for a considerable period of time. As such, if it was not a random group (or even single person) behind the spam, it would likely be an anonymous subgroup of Anonymous itself.
I don’t understand why these guys took the time to do this, it seems like such a senseless waste of time. It disturbed a lot of people and for what reason? My guess is that they just wanted to troll as many people as they possibly could and in a terrible way. Hopefully Facebook has decided to add extra strength into their security to stop problems in the future. This helped point out a weak spot they needed to patch up so there is a silver lining to the whole ordeal.
It’s truly crazy how we think about privacy and keeping your personal things safe on the Internet. But then again people always warn you that once you put something on the Internet it is there for good. The spamming on Facebook was terrible and it did help Facebook find weaknesses in its security that now it can fix. I guess I just ask this question honestly how safe can the Internet be, if that is where all this terrible stuff is posted anyways?
Honestly, I did not have any issue with this, but it is pretty ridiculous. This is where that Hackers Law would come in play if it had actually passed before this event. However, the only thing that would help this situation as of now would be the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. Facebook still should have had something better to protect itself from this situation. It also does not surprise me either that this had anything to deal with Internet Explorer which is one of the worst web browsers out there and is only a cause of issues and problems rather than anything good to come of it.
I know personally, I unfortunately saw some of the images posted including a gruesome picture of a dead dog. I had no idea what was going on when I saw the pictures, I just thought some of the people posting them were particularly gruesome individuals. Now that I know what happened, I feel sorry for those that were at the face of the attack. I once had my account phished because I clicked on some dumb post on accident. I had to shut down my account for several weeks until I found a link to restore it. Facebook’s security needs to step it up so things like this don’t continue. There will always be hackers out there and that is unfortunate, but precautions can be taken to secure cites and that begins with informing users about the existence of such threats.
The images that have been showing on Facebook are not something that you want to see on your news feed everyday!! In my opinion it is very graphic and not a good sight! Hackers need to get a life and think of a positive way to hack things, maybe a business that helps people if they forget they password on their personal computers or on websites, but privacy is a privilege and i think that it should be honored.
I don’t understand why hackers feel the need to do these things in the first place. What’s the point? What are they personally getting out of it? It’s dumb to me, but so are the people who click on these things. It seems pretty obvious to me what’s legit and what’s not on facebook. If you’re not sure then don’t click on it. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make sure things like this can’t happen, but the best way to prevent this to me is if people just are smart on the internet.
It is a general rule on Facebook to not click on any links unless you are completely sure they are real. Even when the link is coming from a good friend via chat, you are no longer safe. I remember when there was no care in the world about hackers. Now, you better be careful what you posted years and years in the past because it may very well come back to haunt you! Anonymous may be the cause to the obscene pictures, but are they to blame? Maybe facebook should be stepping up and implementing a way where the comments and posts are screened first. Then again, doing this takes away almost all freedom from the users.
personally i feel like spam & all that stuff was for myspace and thats why i got away from it all on facebook but now that facebook is so popular the same hackers are following with all of their filth. it’s so ridiculous that they’re posting all these pictures of porn & other gross things. there’s a reason none of that garbage is on there in the first place so no need to put it on there. i feel like all the spam is a high and it keeps getting worse. all the junk is just getting more and more inappropriate and since kids are now using facebook i find it so wrong. people really are sick in the head.
i would have never thought facebook was being hacked…i was fully aware of the disturbing pictures and videos. the only way i found out facebook may have been hacked, was the amount of people who commented or liked what it was that was being posted.
Like Steven I personally didn’t see any of the images that left a lot of people truly upset and posting about it on facebook when it happened. But the thing about social networking sites is that unfortunately there are always going to be security issues because of how many cyber hackers there are trying to access that personal information or crash the site. It is almost inevitable that with every new trending networking site there will always be that one person who wants to try to crack the system and throw a curve ball when it is at an all time peak of being used by a wide varied audience. A lot of that could’ve been avoided by simply not clicking on the links if they popped up as an instant message or deleted if it was posted on your wall to be viewed. Nonetheless, i’m glad that the issue of the vulgar pictures and such have died down tremendously.
Every now and then you see a link to something on Facebook which ends up being spam, but nothing like this before. Every time i logged into Facebook i would scroll down the news feed and BAM! Another disgusting picture with comments and likes, ad it seemed like it was a different picture every time. I didn’t delete my account at the time but i tried to avoid using Facebook so i wouldnt see any more disturbing photos. I haven’t seen any pictures on the news feed in a long time so i’m assuming they fixed the problem. If that happens again, I considering deleting my account.
I did not see the pictures throughout my friends list, but they were sure talking about it on my news feed. That was all that was being talked about but the hacking on facebook has been going on forever and I do not think it was ever this bad. I myself have been hacked when I thought it was just a simple link to wherever. With everyone using it, Facebook need to create a better security system. Children are using facebook and I am sure some were exposed to the disturbing pictures/videos. Facebook needs to have a better secure network so stuff like this does not happen again, because it is not the hackers who get in trouble, it’s Facebook’s.
i have been using facebook for quite a while and have always found it as an enjoyable waste of time. never had i felt that i have had to watch who is around me or who is looking at my computer when i am on facebook, but now things have changed! its seems that lately i have felt nervous of unsure about what i was going to see after i log into my account. on a few occasions i would log in and see pornography, or rash violent images! facebook had always felt like a fun, safe, meaningless environment but it seems that things have changed! am i saying that i am going to delete my facebook account, not necessarily, but i am saying that i will if facebook doesnt fix this security issue!
This is very unfortunate for facebook users. This is another thing we facebook users are going to have to worry about. I think facebook needs to have a better security system to stop these hackers from getting into our accounts and posting stuff that we dont either no about and pictures that we do not want to share! We are pretty much a free source of advertising companies products on our facebooks because once they post something, everyone of your friends will see what you posted thanks to the news feed and they would also message every single one of your friends, I just think that facebook needs to step up the plate and put up a security wall that is unbreakable.
Facebook is a place for social networking; it’s not for spam. You constantly see violent images or inappropriate links such as indecent pictures and captions saying “look and see what so and so walked in on”. It gets old seeing that garbage on a day-to-day basis. You have these people that click on it to see what it is and then it sends out posts to all of their friends, so then it ends up on your page. There are several young children that use Facebook and should not be exposed to this garbage at a young age.
Up to this point I have not seen any of the innapropriate pictures. This is very unfortunate for many people, if this has caused any virus in there computers especially. But i will say, what do you expect with the development of social media like Facebook and Myspace. Eventually there will be people who want to hack into and do harm to people who are trying to keep up with friends or family. I think that Facebook is partly to blame for the hackers, as Mark Zucherberg himself was a hacker at one time, and should know how to prevent these things from happening. Hopefully they will be able to stop this kind of thing from happening in the future.
I don’t understand. Why do people get such a thrill causing others to see images or hear things that they don’t want to hear…especially since it isnt very “personal”. The violaters don’t even get to see each person, or feel the reactions. The only joy they get, is seeing their effect on the news. I personally think it is a worthless, disguting act. The sad thing is this isnt something new, and it will continue to happen. Hackers find a way into almost anything.
As for this beeing facebooks fault, it isn’t, but at the same time it is. Their security could have been much better, and maybe after the first couple of attacks, they could have sent out a warning email to all users…or even a facebook message. I think an apology from facebook was called for and that it will most certainly help keep their reputation a good one.
I do not have a facebook so I do not know how much spam is passed around on the social network. The fact that people could hack into facebook and put these disturbing images on so anybody could see them is a problem. Spam is on a fine line with freedom of speech. Like we talked about in class somethings are in a gray area. Facebook could take a hit for this right now but in the long run it could help the social network. Maybe they will increase security.
I personally believe hacking is pathetic! I deleted my facebook quite a while ago, children use the site and posting hardcore porn and abused animals just corupts the youth of today further than what they are already influenced by. I don’t think facebook is to blame. Hacking is just another form of having your privacy taken away.
Though its sad to see such an event happen we must realize that this is a common problem in society. Personally i feel that each person should take in consideration that such events happen on a daily basis. Regardless of how strong a website may be when it comes to security there will always be some one else who is more intelligent and have the ability to hack anything they please. Though such images may be harmful of kids whom may come across these images we cant put any blame on FaceBook it self to solve such issues. Rather as a society we need to believe that the guardians have control over their own kids.
I find it funny when people get angry over such events as these taking place. Our society is very quick to point fingers instead of realizing that when they opened their own account they chose to take the risk of such events happening, i mean come on what do you expect with so many people using the same website. If people are surprised by such an event and feel the need to blame FaceBook for such an event happening then they shouldnt of opened an account from the very start. Every couple of years a new hype is created over the internet, i wonder if this event will be an excuse for people to change to another service
In my opinion, this is the beginning of Facebook’s demise. This is the beginning of the surely coming continuous wave of spam. Facebook has ran its course; i think that people will start leaving soon. I think that adults that use Facebook will stay, but teenagers will find better options. Google + is stepping up and becoming a viable alternative and I’m sure that the amount of social media platforms is only going to increase. Facebook’s constant stream of completely useless updates is not going to save it; it will become obsolete very soon.
Facebook i believe needed this. They now will step up their security system so they can attempt to never experience this again. I didn’t log into Facebook for weeks because of this, it was dumb and a waste of my time to be searching peoples walls for stupid photos i knew they didn’t post themselves. At times, i wish someone would just figure out a way to delete Facebook permanently, because now it is becoming annoying when you see people on it all day long.
I personally saw the comments about the explicit content not the content, but it is unfortunate that someone or a group could actually hack facebook. The spam is honesrtly ridiculous. But you can tell what emails or posts are spam. It’s the stupid stuff that people you rarely ever talk to post or email you out of nowhere. It happens all the time though if you go back a few months ago you can see that the playstation network had a hack that was very similar. Its very unfortunate that “anyone” can hack into somemthing that is “assured” to be “safe”. In my opinion it is very funny that they would get hacked in this manner. On the other hand it does happen every day on different websites and with different technology.
Hacking is going to happen to almost every website that is created. No matter how strong the security is to the website, it has a high chance of this happening to it. This is very unfortunate and facebook will probably lose many users over this but there is just no way of getting around it. These kinds of things happen all the time and people should just face that fact. When people create their accounts for facebook or any other online social media page they should realize the chances of something like this happening and maybe reconsider creating an account.
I personally haven’t seen any disturbing images on Facebook. I think that this stuff happens and sometimes, no matter how protected a website is, it can get hacked. I think that it isn’t good for Facebook because they have had a good reputation as a site that everyone can use since it first came out. Parents who have little kids who have a Facebook probably weren’t too pleased with these images and made their children delete their account or even deleted theirs themselves. I personally don’t think it is a big deal but I know other people think otherwise and I believe that Facebook lost many accounts due to these pictures.
With so many people and even companies relying on Facebook, things like this SHOULD be taken extremely seriously. In today’s society social media is no longer just for fun. Nowadays Family, friends, employers, Universities and possibly even children who look up to us can easily shuffle through our thoughts, ideas and opinions. Facebook, and other websites like it, are much like a first impression.
I’d like to think my account on facebook is more professional than not. I’ve always hated seeing people who are too afraid to say something politically incorrect that they loose their own personality..and I’d like to think my account has a nice balance of the professional side, and also the witty a**hole side of me. I’ve done a good job, at least in my opinion of keeping my account credible, and I’m sure the majority of mature facebook users do too. To have obscene images tarnish your good name would be devestating to anyone. I hope the hackers are repremanded and Facebook start to realize how much power their site actually holds.
I had no idea explicit images were being put on Facebook by hackers. I personally don’t care, I haven’t been sheltered in my life and can stand to look at a picture. But for the children and others using Facebook who may be sensitive to these kinds of images shouldn’t have to be exposed to them on Facebook. I’m not sure what point these hackers are trying to prove, and they should use their talents on something more productive. I hope they are caught and see some kind of penalty. But this shows that Facebook is vulnerable, and they need to step up security measures. Come on Mark Zuckerberg, your worth billions and your company is getting hacked. What’s up with that?
I never saw the disturbing pictures but I think it is time that these service providers can offer some protection from these hackers out there. It seems to me that a hacker can do pretty much anything they want when they want on these services. A group of hackers took down Sony’s online service for about a month last spring, risking its users private information, and then after all that and finding a solution they had all there users sign an agrreement saying its no longer there fault if hackers take users information. Websites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter need to have hacker protection a top priority so users no that there profile is not in danger.
The Facebook hack was definitely disturbing, all the images were something that should only be found on restricted internet sites. For about a week straight I saw children, dogs, and sexually explicit photos running through the news stream. For the first time since I signed up for a Facebook account I actually avoided checking it. During that time period I did create a Twitter account, and have been using it ever since. I have returned to Facebook, but I wonder if hacking like this continues will it cause the same fate for Facebook as there was for Myspace.
The hacking of these accounts has been a big set back for Facebook owners. I know simply from what I’ve heard people say as a response to all this that if issues like this persist, Facebook may face a harsh future. I heard someone say that Facebook will become the new Myspace. That is quite the insult seeing as how Myspace has nearly completely fallen from popular culture since Facebook took over the scene. With Twitter’s audience growing, it seems as though this may be the new social medium of choice. Indeed, if issues like this continue to spur on the seemingly “every man” social network may very abruptly fall off the block.
I have been lucky not to get any of these images seen on my account or have seen on others. I think the hackers are just bored in life and they have nothing better to do. They probably decided to hack Facebook because it is popular and so many are using it that they want to corrupt or hack to show those types of images on anyone page. I have heard some people find it funny and others find it wrong. I have also heard that some wish they had those images, but when i hear that, depending on who the person is, i have a feeling they are just joking around wishing they had them! The hackers are just being dumb and decide they have nothing better to do so lets hack Facebook with nasty images instead. Hope they get a punishment for all of it.!
Yikes. This is unfortunate! Usually in the past, Facebook invasions have never been this bad! The worse i’ve ever encountered was the spam, but this is awful. I do not know why anyone would want to do something like this. What does this accomplish? Hacking like this is the result of people who have too much time on their hands. I am afraid social networking invasions like these will never end, unfortunately. People will always try to do it for whatever reason. Facebook is for connecting with others. It is supposed to be innocent and fun. Actions that range from spamming to hacking and posting disturbing images do not belong on Facebook. It will not change though, as long as people know they willl not get caught and punished. It is just a way for petty thieves to get their kicks in. I just wish there was a way that Facebook could combat issues such as these before they started.
Matt, well said, sir. It was easy to look past the readability issues because the ideas were all there. Thanks for joining us!
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Janette, good luck with your new Facebook page. A few words of caution though: the rules of gravity, levity and sanity become highly distorted in the black hole that is Facebook. Best way to keep being your authentic self and remaining connected to distant friends and family is to learn to write letters; you’ll be able to speak more openly, anyway. To put yourself in the position of maintaining a personal advertisement via Facebook is to take the first step toward the twilight zone.
I am a recent addition to Facebook, mainly because my family is separated by thousands of miles and this is sometimes easier than talking on the phone in different time zones and schedules. My intention on being on Facebook has nothing to do with my social skills, or friends trying to do better than I am, or any of those things. It is mainly another form of communication for my family. Sure, I have friends who all but live on Facebook, and I am constantly reminded that I have not been to my Facebook page in days or sometimes weeks, but that is my choice on how I use it.
I also believe that others on Facebook can use it as they see fit, and if they don’t follow the rules of Facebook, I have found that other users put them in line. Hackers that posted images that shocked and were horrific in nature got what they were looking for —- people are now talking about them and their actions. I do not condone what they did — I think it was absolutely wrong. What I do see is the resulting talk about watching in the future for posts that do not seem to come from friends on Facebook. I truly believe that people will even out the Facebook playing field by self regulating what is acceptable and what is not. I also believe that people will realize when they are being hacked or sent items that they just know are not real. I give people credit for their gut feelings and if you feel that a message is not truly from a friend on Facebook, then don’t open it. It really is that simple.
Facebook, as with any other online networking site can only be as good as the people who use it. When I first tripped and fell into the world of social networking, I started out with Myspace, because Facebook was for “old people”. As time went on I found myself drowning in the quagmire of games, apps, and truth games. If that wasn’t bad enough I realized that after only two months my page had began to look just like everyone elses, a page a mile long with funny pictures, jokes, and vidoes that hypothetically were supposed to describe me as a person, together formed a desolate wasteland. It had to end, and Facebook looked like the light at the end of the tunnel. It was amazing, the apps, the games, and the pages crammed full of generic drivel were gone. Farmville and its similars were the only thing to be found, and they were tolerable, if my FFA friends wanted to cultivate virtual beets or raise digital sheep well, more power to them. In the world of Facebook, where the highschool students, college students, and adults resided, very little drivel, save a constant stream of each persons thoughts recorded as statuses, was tolerated.
Then in my sophmore year it happened, first a friend request, then two, then an inbox full, of the junior high refugees from the dying world that was MySpace. It happened slowly but snowballed, first the apps, then the love games, then the horoscopes, the truth games, and a list of notifications a mile long. I was asked to be a chef, a mafia soldier, a pirate, and three different types of farmers each day. Then came the viruses. Oh, I’m sure they were here before just like the games, just harder to find and rarer. The friend requests from girls that could only be angels, but strangly enough had only a handful of friends and even fewer pictures, the links to videos that somehow YOU were doing crazy stuff in and just had to see, and the slew of FACEBOOK IS DELETING PROFILES…. ADD THIS PAGE AND YOU WON”T BE DELETED messages.The panicing masses clicked the links, sent the email addresses, and added the beautiful men and women who requested them.The hackers grinned their pasty white smiles and started uploading their pictures, hacking profiles, and in general propogating unrest.
But we must ask ourselves, is it the fault of the younger immigrants to facebook? Kind of, the real blame rests on the shoulders of social networking users who are not media literate. It takes a measure of common sense to protect oneself against malicious users. A nine yearold fudging his/her birthdate to gain Facebook access is probably not the most media literate individual out there, just as an elderly grandparent coming to Facebook to connect with friends and family, or anyother individual coming to Facebook without experience with computers or online networking, could reasonably assumed not to be as well. Grandma, terrified of losing all the family photos will add the page to prevent her profile from being deleted, your girl crazy twelve year old brother will add that beautiful women with no friends when she requests, and everyone unfamiliar with the tricks of the internet will click on that video that they are supposidly in, because they have heard just how important it is to police their profiles for negative information or representations of themselves (employers and college recruiters are watching for goodness sake!!).
Of course along with the above are the games, the add ons and the quizes, each one requires permissions be given to the owners of the app so it can post on your wall and tell all your friends how “sexy” you feel today. Lets say, conservativly, 99 percent of these add ons are on the up and up, that leaves a legitament 1 percent that is out to get you, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but in a world where apps are counted in the hundred of thousands it’s still a very large problem.
Facebook is always going to be the target of hackers, face it, it’s a virtual goldmine of information. Pictures, birthdates, family information, behavior information, hometowns, relationship statuses, education, and work locations. Its all there on the average facebook page sitting there with a “just-add-identity-thief-and-serve” tag inviting any stranger in for a look. Oh, yes, sure Facebook has security settings, but you probably kept hitting remind me later everytime you logged in and the information box popped up, maybe you glanced at one or two of the multitude of security options and possibly even (if the stars were correctly aligned) modified a few. So there the information sits protected by few restrictions, like the hope diamond surrounded by a waist high fence and a beware of dog sign, protected just as much as is convenient but no further. Even for those who check every box and read every line of safety advice remember, internet security is only as good as the last hacker to get in, and just as weak as the next guy to come around. Its a constant back and forth game between hacker and site managers to keep users information safe and secure.
I have to say I was fortunate, I never saw any explicit photos and wasn’t haunted by dead and abused dogs. I was lucky, and luck is when preperation meets opportunity. One night I was on facebook and several friends set me chat messages with a video link and instructions to watch it. I deleted the messages with a deft stroke, smoothly returned to putting off my homework, and in general went on with life. The next day a friend here and there were complaing about horrible pictures, some were scared to much to log in even, I was surprised but didn’t think much of it. Only later did I find out it was such a large and widespread problem. We have the hackers to blame for dreaming up these depraved viruses, but anyone who clicked on the link, added that friend, or gave permission to that app, is just as guilty, albeit simply as an accesory. So next time you feel the need to save your facebook page from deletion, add a beautiful stranger, or tell your friends how sexy you feel; think for a second, is it as fun enough to risk seeing Justin Beiber splayed out it a sexaully seductive pose on your wall……… yeah, I didn’t think you would ever again either.
Just a note anytime I say “you” in the comment, I’m not talking about YOU, unless maybe it is really you, if the shoe fits wear it, but i’m not attacking or addressing anyone in particular.
I was shocked to see the explicit images and thought to myself FB is just allowing anything now days huh… Along with the images were several links that I knew were just scandalous and sprung suspicion not to mention that I wasn’t interested in what they were showing, but I did feel that it was out of control and definitely did not want any part them. I didnt think much about being violated or feeling unsafe although Im sure I should be. So I just remain a little more cautious about the things on FB.
So what was the original intent of Facebook? What has it become?
Some would say that Facebook was Mark Zuckerberg’s chauvinistic attempt to organize and rank the superficial qualities of fellow college students, specifically focused on the “hotness” of potential dates. Perhaps it morphed into something a bit more politically correct when it became about linking students to their alma mater to facilitate an aristocratic sense of exclusivity and belonging. As Zuckerberg’s brainchild grew up and developed into a full fledged marketing scheme to sell a captive audience to marketing researchers, Facebook became a vane attempt at “social networking,” which sounds great but smells of bull$h!t.
Facebook grew in to a place to connect with friends (stalk victims), to develop business prospects and careers(kiss ass), to share interests(gripe, or idolize), and more cynically, to stimulate consumption by turning others on to the crap you yourself would buy. So be it. There’s no denying that Facebook is a tremendous phenomenon, capable of some good no doubt, and many of us were sucked in, no matter how insusceptible we believed or integrity to be.
So what has Facebook become? Arguably, it is a place where political correctness and sheepishness becomes imperative, for to risk exposing one’s true personality traits has shown to be perilous to real relationships, damaging to one’s career, and threatening to one’s privacy and safety. People have to manage their Facebook pages just to fit in with their status quo cohorts, like a job, but only your silly butt doesn’t get paid. Instead users become vegetables on a data farm, to be harvested and delivered to ever new markets. Users give away their ideas and thoughts for next to nothing; meanwhile, Zuckerberg becomes, I think, the youngest billionaire ever? And for what? Turning a college dating site into “a portal for personal discovery.” So I’ve heard him say. This is what qualifies for genius these days. I say, it’s just another marketing ploy gone hyper viral. Like the Thigh Master on a much, much larger scale.
My goodness, is it any wonder why dastardly internet vigilantes decided to puncture the delusion by hacking the site to offend disgust, humor, challenge, and provoke? While their actions are inexcusable, they are understandable. Incidentally, the article referenced for this topic makes it unclear about who, or what group, hacked the site. Oh well.
The knee jerk response is, “Gee, I hope Facebook becomes better at protecting my privacy and security.” And you can bet they’ll try. The last thing Facebook wants to see is a mass exodus from it’s site. It’s the largest marketing firm in the world, and you are the product. The last thing cowboys of the wild west wanted was a cattle stampede near a cliff side.
There are only a couple tried and true ways to ensure your own privacy and safety. Facebook will never be able to provide you with that.
Welcome to the internet….
Acts like the one described have been around for awhile on forums and exist en masse on other social media as well… Usually they’re just perpetrated on small levels by other users/account holders however. Thee really serious “hackers” kind of have moved on to more heady and lucrative endeavors online like stealing your credit card info (or hundreds of thousands of card info at once) rather than just juvenile spamming and trolling. Still as a semi-sane person I ask myself often what’s the exact motivation one has when one perpetrates this sort of quasi-lewd and overtly rude behavior.
Let’s circle back to my first statement; “Welcome to the internet”… and the Internet is technology, and with technology there always has been, and always will be a catch twenty two. We advance two steps and take one back, more freedom more considerations about who will inevitably abuse their privilege.. the human condition right?
Freedom is a funny thing… the illusion of having it breeds some of the worst, most vile behavior, while sometimes those who strive to really be “free” or absorb the whole concept of freedom can be spurred on in their quest by righteousness and do such amazing, laudable things.. The human psyche isn’t anything that we can fully understand… power + ability to do something can yield behavior that can be commendable, disgusting or both.
So yeah… spam like that is really abrading, but hey, just look at it more so as a tangent of all of our collective malfeasance as humans and our innate nature to gravitate toward deception and destruction of others…
I’m so glad I stopped using Facebook years ago.
I once listened to a quinquagenarian instructor prognosticate that the trend of people using social media like MySpace and Facebook would diminish with age and acquired sophistication. I later encountered this individual fretting about whether to delete their Facebook profile, fearing other users reactions to quirky, idiosyncratic comments they themselves posted. What a dilemma. Snore.
I can only image how sophisticated users, who couldn’t resist the trendy compulsion to join the herd, felt after diligence in maintaining a personal online advertisement was destroyed when “friends” visited their page to find pictures of a Donkey Show. Chuckle.
honestly the disturbing images on facebook became out of control. there was one point where i didnt even want to log in because of them. i really dont understand why hackers would want to put pictures of dead dogs and children on there. this definitely crossed the line. i have a little sister that has a facebook and all the porn on there was inapropriate for her. facebook needs to get this under control because a lot of people will start not wanting to log in anymore.
The spam on Facebook is annoying and usually it is not sexual or violent images. It is unforunate that hackers would want to upload these indecent photographs on Facebook. When I see spam I never click on it because I know it will send out posts to all of my friends walls. In class we talked about freedom speech and privacy and what the hackers are doing is drawing a fine line between the two. I do not agree with what they are doing, but this intrusion helps Facebook beef up their security to prevent this from happening in the future.