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Facebook adds 5 divs, 9 spans and 30 CSS classes to every post in the timeline

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550 points polskibus | 4 comments | 08 Feb 19 16:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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b123400 ◴[08 Feb 19 18:51 UTC] No.19117441[source]▶
I read it somewhere that Chinese websites are taking this kind of obfuscations to the next level. The simple ones are randomly ordered divs re-layouted by JS at runtime. The complicated ones include custom font files which characters and glyph don't match, so for example <div style="font-family:custom-font">abc</div> would look like "123".
replies(1): >>19117551 #
1. MiddleEndian ◴[08 Feb 19 19:02 UTC] No.19117551[source]▶
The font one seems like it's pushing it too far even for regular users since it breaks copy and paste.

Also this all seems like it would break accessibility regulations.

replies(2): >>19117609 #>>19133173 #
2. jandrese ◴[08 Feb 19 19:08 UTC] No.19117609[source]▶
China has accessibility regulations?
replies(1): >>19117741 #
3. davb ◴[08 Feb 19 19:24 UTC] No.19117741[source]▶
Yes. See https://www.w3.org/WAI/policies/

I know it's currently trendy to make digs at China (increasingly common in HN comments) but it's a huge country with plenty of talented engineers and accessibility advocates. With an aging population [0], such accommodations are becoming increasingly important.

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19630110

4. b123400 ◴[11 Feb 19 09:43 UTC] No.19133173[source]▶
You are right, but I don't think companies care about accessibility. Facebook using the divs is already breaking screen reader.