Links to Ning from Facebook blocked?

[Hugh]

Is there a problem with Ning and Facebook? A member alerted me that links to my network from my Facebook page were being blocked with the following message:

Sorry

The link you are trying to visit has been reported as abusive by Facebook users. To learn more about staying safe on the Internet, visit Facebook's Security Page. Please also read the Wikipedia articles on malware and phishing.

I checked another Ning network I know that runs a Facebook page and they seem to have the same issue.

http://www.facebook.com/HarringayOnline

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bowes-and-Bounds-Connected/1655707968...

[Eric Suesz]

Just to clarify, BARKPARK: Do you get the abuse message or a 500 error when sharing a Ning URL by copying and pasting? Just want to make sure I understand. Thanks. 

[BARKPARK CREATOR]

The phishing/malware message appears when there is any link shared in a message via FB. The 500 is any time I have ever posted a url on an actual wall. 

As for the FB integration, must have made 2 dozen attempts but CREATE A NEW APP actually disappeared each time. There is a thread I found, I think on Sunday, here at Creators with a few others saying they were having the same issue with Facebook integration/app creation. I threw in the towel. Twitter was a piece of cake.

[Patrick Chappelle]

Here's the link to mine, Eric: https://www.facebook.com/kingdomzx.net You'll have to scroll down some to locate posts from my network.

[Janettee McCrary]

I know it's not the BEST option - but perhaps you could post text versus links? IE tell them to go to thehumantouch.ning.com rather than http://thehumantouch.ning.com or if that still "links" then say "The Human Touch at Ning dot com"? Or use a photo of the link? That would at least help with THIS issue...

[Skye]

Well I might be getting somewhere, I disabled the Google+ from my skysa bar, shared something on my Facebook page and when I clicked on the shared article instead of a Warning I received a completely blank page. 

Its better than the warning at least.

[Radialistas Brasileiros]

Theres this other interesting text:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google-users-accuse-facebook-o...

[Patrick Chappelle]

I read it and commented on that post, pending approval.

[Franco Mercalli]

This is interesting:

"We integrate with many different external blacklists including Norton and when there's a block on their service we provide a warning to our users," Wolen said in an email. "I have already reached out to Norton to notify them, however, the cause for the block is a question best suited for their PR Team."

Since the begging of this fb issue I noticed that it is strongly correlated with McAfee blacklist. I still have the impression that, at bottom, this is a blacklisting issue, not a fb one.

See also this:

This is how the link shim works: every time a link is clicked on the site, the link shim will check that URL against our own internal list of malicious links, along with the lists of numerous external partners including McAfee, Google, Web of Trust, and Websense

(From: https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-security/link-shim-protecti...)

[Eric Suesz]

I think you may be right, Franco. My hunch all week has been that Facebook has partnered with McAfee to share lists and that some of these provided lists are unreliable. (As the saying goes: When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when you're in the business of blocking content, it's easy to overreach.) But, that is simply my own opinion. 

Just so you know: We've been in contact with McAfee, but as you can imagine the business of that business isn't always transparent. But, I'm hoping we can find out for sure.

[Franco Mercalli]

Yes, I can immagine it is not easy.

Thank you for your effort.

There seems to be a procedure for notifying false positives to McAfee: https://community.mcafee.com/thread/40930

I would urge all NCs, especially those which are McAfee customers, to use it, ask for delisting of IP 208.82.16.68, and make cristal clear that they are damaging us.

[Franco Mercalli]

McAfee support answered by suggesting how to whitelist 208.82.16.68 on my PC.

I sent to them the reply below.

I suggest that all NCs who are McAfee customer do the same.

===

Sirs,

I'm frankly non satisfied with your answer.

The problem is not that McAfee blocks 208.82.16.68 on my PC, rather that it blocks it on every PC in the world.

Blacklisted IP 208.82.16.68 is a *false positive*, as it correspond to service Ning.com which is perfectly reliable. You should delist it as soon as possbile.

On Ning.com I'm managing an online community of 7,600 members: all among them who are McAfee customers are suffering from the same issue.

If the matter is not solved by you within 7 days, I will try to solve it by sending out to all 7,600 members a broadcast message, stating the following:

• that McAfee is creating problems with the above mentioned *false positive*
• that the issue is due to bad blaclkisting management by McAfee
• that to solve the issue I suggest to all members who use McAfee to switch to an alternative software, such as Symantec-Norton, which does not have this problem

[Eric Suesz]

I like your style, Franco.