Beginning yesterday, users of Social Fixer have been greeted by an announcement when they log onto Facebook, informing them that the popular browser extension’s Facebook page has been removed without warning.
Social Fixer, a plugin that works with most browsers, allows users to change how their Facebook newsfeed and other pages are displayed and how they operate. Although very popular, the extension has always been a thorn in Facebook’s side. It’s not surprising that Zuckerberg and his minions would now find even less to like about the plugin, since Wall Street has been prodding them to get serious about monetizing the massive amount of traffic that flows through the social network.
It’s the ability to automatically hide posts on a news feed that probably most has the powers that be at Facebook in a snit. A savvy user could probably use this feature to block or hide “suggested posts” in a newsfeed, which basically are just paid advertisements for commercial Facebook pages. Some users find these posts to be an intrusion, since they are advertising that can’t be easily ignored because they appear mixed inside the content stream.
The announcement of the removal of Social Fixer’s Facebook page included a graphic image from the Peanuts comic strip of Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown, with a link to the plugin’s website for a more detailed explanation. According to Matt Kruse, the plugin’s sole developer, Facebook removed the page apparently because they thought it contained spam.
