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Ask HN: Facebook.com inserts strange link when loaded over Verizon LTE

3 points by chatmasta ↗ HN
Screenshot: https://imgur.com/gallery/agE5q

When I load Facebook mobile over Verizon LTE connection, I see this link in the footer to "VZWToday Home" which links to a seemingly unused domain in German language.

Has anybody seen this? Curious how the link is appearing there. Is Facebook inserting it for all Verizon users, or is Verizon somehow modifying the content of the page?

9 comments

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mrpound
It's likely Verizon using Javascript-based content injection to append that link to the footer. ISPs do this sort of thing all the time.
chatmasta
This page is https.
mrpound
So what? You don't think an ISP can intercept and break SSL? Transparent proxying is a thing.
r1ch
Unless they installed a MITM certificate on his device, I certainly hope not.
mrpound
True. Looks like it's FB adding the link.
m3liot
I have it as well.. and it is linking to a website from my mobile operator
chatmasta
So there you go... must be Facebook inserting it. But why? Maybe related to their "mobile basics" package?
mrpound
Just checked on a VZW device (normal data plan) in the US and saw the footer on m.facebook.com and it indeed hits a domain like "lm.facebook.com" before redirecting to the Verizon page, which was in German.

I think the message is just something about the domain being inactive. It must be some old marketing WAP page that's no longer in use.