Images not showing (socialtracking blockers)

[Syne]

Okay with a bit of messing about I think I've worked out how to do this without deleting files, but it does require an about:config edit in firefox.

• In your browser use about:config (accept the risk, you can always fix it later)
  
• In the search start typing urlclassifier in the output there is a couple of edits you need to make:
  
  In urlclassifier.features.socialtracking.annotate.blacklistTables and urlclassifier.features.socialtracking.blacklistTables
  Remove the social-tracking-protection-twitter-digest256 entries
  
  In urlclassifier.trackingAnnotationTable and urlclassifier.trackingTable
  Remove the social-track-digest256 entries
  
  If you do that correctly, the images should show and hopefully an update to the safebrowsing folder will not effect your browser (only a major browser update might)
  
  The main risk thats opened by doing this is Twitter can set tracking cookies (plus any sits blocked in the social-track-digest) but for the most part thats only a problem if you login to social network sites, as they'll find it harder to connect your browser connection if you don't have an account you use with them.

Those about:config changes seems to have worked, for now. Since I always set Firefox to not update (currently through group policy regedit), I'll hold off on the other measures until they become necessary.

Thanks for all the detective work, Stryder. Things like this make me tempted to abandon Firefox.

[Syne]

Nope. Even though all those about:config setting remain as edited, clearing the cache and restarting Firefox once again doesn't show the images.
I went to check it and noticed that only some of the images were showing...I assume those that were cached while the fix momentarily worked. So I cleared the cache and restarted to find none remaining.

Really discouraging, considering I've been a loyal Firefox user for well over a decade.

I guess my next step will be to backup my profile and try refreshing Firefox, just to eliminate some old custom setting messing things up. Certainly not every FF user is just accepting this state of affairs without any real solution.

I use Opera on Android and, rarely, as a secondary PC browser. I almost switched, but then found out that the built-in ad blocker wasn't good enough and required a third-party one. Not sure what the point of a built-in one is if it doesn't do the job.

[stryder]

Nope. Even though all those about:config setting remain as edited, clearing the cache and restarting Firefox once again doesn't show the images.
I went to check it and noticed that only some of the images were showing...I assume those that were cached while the fix momentarily worked. So I cleared the cache and restarted to find none remaining.

Really discouraging, considering I've been a loyal Firefox user for well over a decade.

I guess my next step will be to backup my profile and try refreshing Firefox, just to eliminate some old custom setting messing things up. Certainly not every FF user is just accepting this state of affairs without any real solution.

I use Opera on Android and, rarely, as a secondary PC browser. I almost switched, but then found out that the built-in ad blocker wasn't good enough and required a third-party one. Not sure what the point of a built-in one is if it doesn't do the job.

I've been testing the autoconfig.js/firefox.cfg file hack varient of the fix and it still works currently. (Booted up and images show, no resolving back to a previous state since it reinitialises the settings every time the program starts. I was looking at it as a way to make sure the settings aren't overridden during an update.)

There are considerations that some of the problem can actually be OS based, especially if using OneDrive or have various Windows Policies set for your user account. Either can affect whether changes made stick or get "fixed" back to what they were.

The real concern about the inbuilt blocking however is who decides on what content gets blocked? Lets say a proverbial country known for it's high level of censorship decided it didn't like a particular site (or attacks a particular business for economic goals), it could literally cripple a websites service without the website even being aware. (I doubt the people responsible for the filters sends an email out to abuse@ the domain of the website to tell them the changes occuring because of their sites inclusion in a blacklist)

A majority of the browser users would be blissfully unaware about how the manipulation of censorship has been done "under the hood".

Currently I'm kind of surprised there isn't any comment by Elon on the subject itself, after all his companies currently hurting for his own changes... but some of those changes could of well be necessary to shakeup all the blocked URLs and blacklists that the company had found itself on over the years. (It would obviously hurt it as a business)

[Syne]

I always set my connection to metered so Windows won't update without permission. That also disables OneDrive.

For some reason, twimg.com images were back on the forum. I hadn't changed anything since making those about:config changes and had restarted my computer. But again, once I clear the cache, the browser won't, at least immediately, fetch the images again.

[Syne]

Again, I've changed nothing, except shutting down and restarting my computer. Images from twimg are back for the forum, but not for sites like drudgereport.com.
Too afraid to clear the cache, as that loses them every time.