Facebook Posts Become Increasingly Inappropriate

          Recently, very graphic images have been showing up on people’s news feeds on Facebook. This includes pornographic images, grotesque images of cartoons and dead animals, and other obscene pictures.
           The origin of these pictures is unknown. Facebook’s staff has been hard at work attempting to remove these pictures  but is having little success, as they are still seen all around the site.
          “These pictures are so nasty, and it’s becoming a trend,” said junior Chris Collins. “In my eyes it’s unnecessary and very avoidable.”
          People think that this “linkspam virus” started when Facebook users clicked on a link that caused disturbing pictures to flood their news feed. After this occurred, the pictures would be shown on the news feed of others anytime that one of the pictures was “liked” or commented on.
          “There’s not much that Facebook can do about it, but they need to find a solution because it’s hurting their company,” said senior Danny Goldsmith.
          Facebook is currently investigating the issue. In an interview, Facebook’s senior technology consultant Graham Cluely said, “It is not clear how the offending content is being spread,” but added that the website could face long term consequences.
          Facebook is taking protective action of their younger users, encouraging anyone who has seen these images and feels offended to discuss it with their family or a school counselor.
          Most recently, Facebook has issued this public statement: “Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms. We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue.”
          Facebook users can do their best to avoid seeing these images by blocking the images from their news feed or blocking the users who “post” the images. In addition to this, users should report any obscene photos that they see, in order to alert the Facebook company.

By Daniel Scribner