Facebook Broke the Internet

A weird thing happened on Thursday night. Anytime you clicked on a link — or most of the time anyways — some strange Internet force directed you to an error page on Facebook. The URL is full of weird randomly generated code, but it's definitely a Facebook page. You can even check your notifications even though you didn't even want to visit Facebook. No, this is not a conspiracy. In all likelihood, it's a bug that will be fixed within the hour. (Unless, it's not, in which case things will get very interesting.) If you need to use the Internet before then, simply log out of Facebook, and you should be good to go.

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Folks that understand how these Internet things work have quickly surmised that the bug must be related to Facebook Connect, the ubiquitous, one-click log-in feature that you've been using much more than you though you were. If true this would mean that every time you're redirected by this bug or whatever it is, you're heading to a site that's controlled by Facebook. We couldn't have said anything so dramatic yesterday, but today it's become painfully apparent. Facebook rules the Internet. There are few corners that it does not touch, and whether you read your News Feed or not,  Facebook can ruin your Thursday night of Internet surfing any time it wants to. 

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This is a developing story, so check back soon for more details.