Facebook's 'porn and gore' epidemic: 4 theories

Facebook users have been facing awkward moments as graphic images of a sexual and violent nature turn up in their feeds. Who's behind this debacle?

Facebook spam
(Image credit: Hill Street Studios/Blend Images/Corbis)

Facebook has a real "porn and gore" problem on its hands: Starting last week, Facebook users who innocently clicked a tempting link inadvertently flooded their feeds with extremely graphic images of sex acts, mutilated animals and people, and even "Jesus porn," automatically posted for all their friends to see. This Tuesday, after users took to Twitter to vent their disgust with "unstoppable torrents of hardcore pornography and gory, violent pictures," and threaten to decamp to Google+, Facebook acknowledged the issue, blamed it on a "coordinated spam attack," and said it was fixing the problem. But who's to blame for Facebook's flood of photos of dead dogs, Justin Bieber photoshopped into compromising positions, and naked octogenarians? Here, four theories:

1. Blame Anonymous

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