Thursday, May 22, 2008

Facebook Spam Filter Censors Speech

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg trumpeted his social network as a modern communication platfor that could connect people in new and exciting ways during his keynote interview at this year's South by Southwest Interactive content.

There's only one problem: the company's spam filters are deleting messages sent by users that contain certain messages, according to some fancy investigation at ReadWriteWeb.

It would be disturbing enough if the messages were from child predators or other socially questionable groups. After all, free speech is for everyone. However, the spam filters aren't deleting those questionable emails.

The company is blocking messages that reference two other social networking sites -- Wadja.com and Yuwie.com.

This news comes days after Facebook blocked access to Google's data portability system because, the company said, it doesn't contain enough privacy controls. Initial reaction from pundits and press is that Facebook is more concerned about losing its main asset: control of users' information.

Posted By Brad King at 09:24 AM
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