Facebook suffered a bizarre glitch today that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages.
Thousands of the social network’s 2.8billion global users reported falling victim to the bug, which filled news feeds with random messages, memes and images.
User reports indicate Facebook started having problems at about 7.08 BST (02:30 EDT), according to the website Downdetector, which monitors website outages.
As of around 10:30 BST (05.30 EDT) most Facebook news feeds appeared to be returning to normal.
The problem appeared to stem from a technical issue with Facebook’s internal systems determining which posts appear in a user’s news feed.
The social media giant said the problem has now been resolved and said a ‘configuration change’ had been the root of the issue.
‘Earlier today, a configuration change caused some people to have trouble with their Facebook feed,’ a spokesman for parent company Meta said.
‘We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone the who was impacted, and we apologise for any inconvenience.’
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, confirmed the problem has now been resolved and said a ‘configuration change’ had been the root of the issue
Facebook suffered a bizarre glitch today that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages. Users took to Twitter to share some of random posts
Another person posted shots of random posts to the pages of musicians Eminem and Billie Eilish, claiming it had affected his ‘entire feed’
Facebook started having problems at 7.08am British Summer Time (2.08am EDT), according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages
Over 2,000 people in the UK reported problems, with 80 per cent of those claiming this issue is with their feeds. Users globally appear to be affected
Issues were also reported on Downdetector.com by millions of users in the United States, as well as other parts of the world
More than 1,000 people in the UK and 2,000 people in the US reported problems, with 45 per cent of those claiming the issue was with their feeds, Downdetector showed.
Users in the UK, Australia, and elsewhere worldwide were also quick to report issues on Wednesday.
Several Facebook users questioned whether the social network had been hacked, although Jake Moore, a security advisor at ESET, said this was unlikely.
‘Although it may look like Facebook has been hacked, it is more likely to be a technical glitch resulting from a few recent changes Facebook made to its algorithm,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Until the issue is fixed, you may need to unfollow the rogue accounts you are seeing in your feed.’
Facebook users flooded Twitter to share their experiences with the bizarre glitch.
Twitter user @maymaywala said: ‘@facebook is down or what???? My feed is spammed with what random people are commenting on celebrity pages.’
Another user, @Zeeshan0961, said: ‘What the hell is this @facebook? My whole timeline is Full with people posting On Celebrities walls.’
The glitch seemed to be a global issue – one user based in Melbourne, Australia, had seen a post of someone posting to the page of American actor Vin Diesel.
Another affected user shared their experience from New Delhi in India, saying Facebook is ‘acting drunk and funny.’
One user said on Twitter that the issue is ‘exposing me to parts of humanity I wish I hadn’t seen’
‘Mark Zuckerberg right now’: Facebook’s parent company Meta has apologised for the bizarre issue
‘Facebook glitch!! What’s happening’: Users are quick to jump to Twitter whenever there’s an outage
Facebook users flooded to Twitter to share their experiences of the bizarre glitch, which the site’s owner, Meta, has commented on
One Twitter user, @CallMeElektra, took a screenshot of her Facebook feed, showing a random person posting on the page of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Another person posted shots of random posts to the pages of musicians Eminem and Billie Eilish, claiming it had affected his ‘entire feed’.
It appears the glitch did not affect every Facebook user.
One Twitter user, @CallMeElektra, took a screenshot of her Facebook feed, showing a random person posting on the page of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Pictured: One of the thousands of meme shared to a celebrity page dedicated to footballer Paul Pogba
User reports indicate Facebook started having problems at approximately 2.30am EDT, according to the website Downdetector, which monitors website outages
Posts shared to popular accounts are usually filtered out of feeds, but security Meta’s recent changes to its algorithm may have been behind the issue.
Meta is currently making long-term changes to Facebook’s feed for users globally.
It’s splitting the Facebook homepage into two separate tabs – ‘Feeds’, which is focused on chronological posts, and ‘Home’, which focuses on promoted posts.
Celebrity pages, which can boast tens or hundreds of millions of followers, appeared to be targeted by trolls who took advantage of the glitch to launch a torrent of spam.
Anyone sharing content to the pages of famous bands, athletes, and influencers would then have their post broadcasted to the feeds of the millions of people who followed them – making Facebook practically unusable for several hours.
Posts shared to popular celebrity pages are usually filtered out, but security experts today told MailOnline that Meta’s recent changes to its algorithm could have caused the issue
Celebrity pages, which can boast tens or hundreds of millions of followers, appeared to be targeted by trolls who took advantage of the glitch to launch a torrent of spam to those who had once ‘liked’ a popular page
A seemingly innocuous picture of a turkey sandwich was soon shared far and wide across Facebook’s feed thanks to the bizarre bug
The ‘Rick Rolled’ meme was shared to the official Facebook page of Eminem and its 94million followers
Another affected user shared their experience from New Delhi in India, saying Facebook is ‘acting drunk and funny’
