Apple has NOT banned Facebook
How do these rumors get started? Or, more to the point, how do they get perpetuated?
Late Thursday, a site called tinycomb ("Hand-Picked Tech News") reported that Facebook had been banned "for life" from every Apple (AAPL) store in the United States — some 207 retail outlets in all, by my count.
This must have been one of those facts that was too good to check, because I'm pretty sure none of the half-dozen newspapers and blogs that repeated and embellished the story bothered to do any legwork to confirm it.
It certainly seems that most of the readers who applauded the reported ban — a couple dozen at tinycomb, nearly 40 at Digg, more than 120 at MacRumors — took it as fact.
"Why has this been kept under the radar?" asked SherwinNero at tinycomb.
"Has it really been kept under the radar," answered Max, "or was it considered 'not significant enough' to put it on the front pages everywhere?"
Or is, just possibly, not true?
I know from experience that some Apple stores put limits on where on the Web you can take their demo machines — sometimes restricting Safari to Apple's promotional pages.
And it's certainly possible that individual stores have blocked Facebook — as MySpace has been blocked since May 2007 — because some of its members were hogging the machines.
Indeed, Ars Technica quotes an unnamed Apple employee who says his store has been blocking Facebook for about a month.
"It's just trying to find a balance between letting people try out the computers, but not tying them up so others can try them as well," he told Ars. (link)
But a person at Apple headquarters in a position to know assures me that there is no nationwide ban on Facebook in effect — permanent or otherwise.
I'm headed to the nearest Apple store to check it out. If you're in one now, let us know in the comment stream where you are and whether the demo machine you're using will let you get to your Facebook page.
UPDATE: CNET's Caroline McCarthy beat me to it, did the legwork, and confirmed that Facebook is accessible at all three Manhattan Apple Stores, although as suspected there are individual machines in those stores that will redirect you to an Apple Store page. See here.
I have to agree with those who say it's a 'Duh' moment when anyone, let alone a writer, points out to us that not everthing you read on the internet is free.
In one of the stores of ny, facebook has been blocked "accidentally" or that is what a salesperson told me. They will unblocked immediately.
this article is a joke….one out of every two in the tech section is about apple. apples a good company but really?
"The evil in the wold is not caused by ignorance but by what folks know that isn't so." Josh Billings
i just did a refresh last night at a Apple store in the Boston area and the new disc image we installed on the computers had facebook blocked, but it was mistakenly blocked and will be unblocked soon
Big props for not taking "what everyone knows" at face value. Journalism 101, maybe, but I suspect many 'journalists' slept through that class.
Apple hasn't banned Facebook…but Hilton Hotels has! I recently stayed at the Hilton Garden in in Saint Paul, MN and was prevented from using their Office Suite computers to access and update my facebook for three days! When I contacted Customer Service and the Manger they said it was company policy to NOT allow guest to access Facebook "company-wide"! Next time I am staying at the Holiday Inn!
I think this is a great story. It shows how eager some "news" sites are to print disparaging stories about Apple while never bothering to check on the facts. And how in the heck did Obama get dragged into this? Have we become so politicized that we must ascribe political leanings into every event that happens in life?
Just another ploy by an Apple "stooge" to get people to go into an Apple store, with the hope of spending money during this economic crisis.
There's 2 minutes of my life I want back (that's how long it took me to read the story).
"waste of time." Yet those of you complaining take the time to comment? hmmmm?
Who needs market share, when you have such beautiful margins.
The post isn't really about Apple's policy on blocking sites, I see it aimed more at websites who claim to contain accurate news who are instead publishing twaddle.
Good on your for standing up for accurate reporting.
What a completely pointless and uninformative story. A waste of time and should not be on the front page.
Wow, seriously people, get a grip!! If you can't stand CNN coverage and stories than why are you even here reading them?!?!? Talk about stupidity.
I think Philip Elmer-DeWitt woke up this morning and had absolutely nothin interesting to write about and thought he would just add to CNN's obcession with Apple and Obama. It's time for CNN and it's reporters/writers to move to the next season of programming b/c people are so sick of hearing about Obama's 16th day in office and wether or not he is holding up to his end of the bargain or if apple is going to come apart at the seems b/c Steve Jobs is sick.
What happened to CNN actually getting out and reporting real news. Get off your ARRSSSES!!
ex ped: I don't remember ever writing about Obama. But I do believe he's newsworthy.
he wakes up in a morning, finds himself nothing tio write i his blog. instantly he finds an stupid article which talks about apple. then he decides the article as his topic in his blog.
stupidity and innocent.
IS it really a worth news story? I have seen many stores blocking certain sites . I don't why anything that has to do with Apple makes so much of deal!! Especially on c~n !
Next story. This one seems to have no news worthiness associated with it. Oh yeah it does, it involves Apple so the Obama affect is at work here. If Apple is envolved everyone must care, right? Not here, I left that ship a long time ago and will never go back. I don't need dictation in my computers we already have enough of that from Washington.
I don't understand why this is even a news story? Most computer retailers block sites, or limit access to their own promotional sites.
So if Apple decides to block Facebook, so what? Would it be a news story if Apple decided to block Dell.com, Tiger Direct, or any number of competitor's sites?
This story wasn't worth the server space and bandwidth is occupies.
Non instant news does not guarantee correctness. That's when retraction and apology come into play. What we need is responsible journalism.
How is this news? I could care less how much I can surf at a computer store. If you're expecting to be able to surf the web at a retailer, expect to find blocked sites! Use a library if you're not able to afford an Internet connection at home.
This report is a waste of time, they can ban whatever they feel like, why not have playboy as a homepage.
I could picture people just hogging the machines checking their facebook and myspace
Not surprising. This is just another one of the thousands of examples of why blogs are not journalism.
But people these days prefer instant over correct, so they get what they deserve.
My local Apple store doesn't even block the online retailers of Apple products. I was able to show an Apple employee why I was buying my MacBook online instead of in his store.