Rise in objectionable content triggers Facebook probe

UPDATE:  In a startling revelation, a report in NDTV confirms that as many as 2 lakh Facebook users, based out of Bangalore alone have fallen victim to the spam attack currently on Facebook. What’s even more worrying is that the profile pictures of those whose profiles were hacked were morphed over pornographic images and sent to their contacts as feeds. While it is anyone’s guess what the reactions to these ugly turn of events may have been, it hints towards a bigger, more serious issue. Many of those victimized now plan to quit the social networking site, altogether, since the incident has made them lose face among their peers, for no fault of theirs.

At the last count, as many as 60 lakh profiles have been reportedly hacked, since Sunday, globally. The report further stated that several of these Facebook users had a status message with a link, when they logged in. On clicking this link, the user was directed to a page where they could see their photo pasted on the picture of a porn star! 

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This report comes as an update to our earlier report describing the ordeal of several users who were brought face-to-face with gory sights. 

If poring over your News Feed on Facebook these days is proving to be an exceptionally arduous task with you cringing at some pictures (of a dead dog, or a pornographic image), then this may interest you. According to a Reuters report, Facebook has been receiving a lot of complaints these days from users who’re complaining of their News Feeds being dotted with objectionable content, which include gory images and video links of violence and pornography. 

Stay cautioned.. 

Further according to a quote from Facebook’s spokesperson, Andrew Noyes it is being learnt that the 800 million user base site has been gripped by a series of co-ordinated spam attacks, resulting in the objectionable content. “_We experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerabilit_y,”  “Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible,” it was stated. Reportedly, Facebook engineers have been working towards nailing the accused. 

Although, Facebook is still unclear about the exact details of those behind the spam attacks, it has been revealed that several users have been tricked into pasting links to these objectionable content and unknowingly falling into the trap. At the moment, the only way to steer clear of falling prey to such spam attacks seems to be avoiding sharing of these links, if they do appear on your News Feeds, unless you are very sure of what the link contains and the sender.