Abrowser is breaking Facebook
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About Facebook:
-Do not use Facebook. Its business model is targeted advertising - which means it is economically incentivized to register everything about you. Even without logging in, even without an account, every time that you read a Facebook page (or a non-Facebook page with a "Like" icon, for that matter) is registered linked to your public IP address, which is personal data.
-Above all, do not use Facebook with an account. By creating an account you are providing them with more personal data beyond your IP address - a name, a date of birth, and so on. You could lie on these (which I am not suggesting you to), but you will need to provide at least one real data: a working e-mail address. With every like you would be helping them to make your profile more accurate. With every tagged photography you would be helping their AI to develop facial recognition. And so on.
-Above all, for God's sake, do not use the Facebook App. It registers every phone call you make - day, time, length, and above all, the people you speak with.
Once this all is said...
I read Facebook pages every day. I do it because, in spite of my warnings, lots of people and groups and organizations use Facebook to communicate. When you want that information, you are on a dilemma, either use Facebook or miss on those informations you want. So far, Facebook wins: for me, that information is too much important to miss.
Therefore, I read Facebook pages, but do it in the most protected way: no app, no log in, just opening their pages on Abrowser.
And today, January the 3rd, 2020, Abrowser on Trisquel 8 is breaking their pages. For some unknown reason, Abrowser is redirecting to a page that requires login. I could still see the pages, but only if I log in - which, because of the reasons explained above, I do not want to.
This doesn't happen on IceCat, doesn't happen on Gnome Web. I recall no recent update on Trisquel 8. It has nothing to do with add-ons either - I restarted Abrowser with add-ons disabled, and it still happening.
Anyone encountering the same issue?
Thank you for all the information and warnings. And for the title of your post. It was due time that somebody break Facebook...
Have you tried replacing "www." with "m." in the Facebook URL? This produces a simpler version of the page with less JavaScript, which is often more accessible and exhibits less mysterious behavior than the "www" pages.
You should use Tor Browser when accessing Facebook pages, specially if you don't need to login, that way Facebook can't get your IP either and last time i checked it worked as intended with Tor, although you may need to enable js or pages may be broken, or access using "m." as suggested.
Checked again today, and Abrowser worked fine with Facebook. Abrowser is whimsical sometimes... like introducing a well-typed address and find that, rather than opening the corresponding web page, Abrowser is launching a DuckDuckGo search on the address, as if the address was invalid.
I'm thinking this was not due to Abrowser as such, but how Facebook is/was serving requests based on the user agent or some particular fingerprint of your browser.
I have noticed that when trying to view their Instagram pages, if the VPN isn't running, it would let me see a little bit of something. But if the VPN were on, it would redirect me to a login screen (which, of course, I wouldn't use). Now I know about Bibliogram for that, but the point is, those folks seem to serve their pages differently depending on minute features of an http request.
Today it happened again. I copy below three Facebook pages that had their address altered to require login before showing content. By the way, the three are from Celtic Music Festivals in the Iberian Peninsula:
Festival name
Address from its Facebook page
Altered address to require login
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Festival Folk Illa de San Simón
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Festival Intercéltico do Morrazo
https://www.facebook.com/festivalintercelticomorrazo/
https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffestivalintercelticomorrazo%2F
---
Festival Folk Celta Ponte da Barca
https://es-es.facebook.com/folkcelta/
https://es-es.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fes-es.facebook.com%2Ffolkcelta%2F
---
I restarted Abrowser without add-ons and -this time- it fixed the problem. Abrowser has whimsical behavior, odd things like this happen from time to time.
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