Meta Issues Mea Culpa Over Facebook Friend Request Glitch
Facebook’s parent company told The Daily Beast it had now fixed a bug that was sending friend requests to every profile that users viewed.
MANAN VATSYAYANA
Meta has apologized for a glitch that Facebook users said sent automatic friend requests to any profile they viewed.
“We fixed a bug related to a recent app update that caused some Facebook friend requests to be sent mistakenly,” a spokesperson for Meta told The Daily Beast Friday. “We’ve stopped this from happening and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Numerous Facebook users took to social media early on Friday to complain about the massive privacy breach, which some branded “the end of stalking.”
Fb is legit adding randoms if you click on their profile.
— Bavid Mcjavid (@bavidmcjavid) May 12, 2023
Got a screen record here.@facebook wtf?!#Facebook #glitch #facebookadd pic.twitter.com/S7lxPhQU6F
So facebook now automatically sends friend request when you see someone’s profile…. We did the test with random people and if you check your friend request sent they appear there… #Facebook pic.twitter.com/vN7r8T1uw8
— 🃏MONTSE (Taylor’s Version) (@beachybones) May 12, 2023
facebook stalking and somehow a friend request was sent. thats it guys. see u in another life
— madds 2.0 (@mvddssvcks) May 12, 2023
“Facebook letting your stalkers be known today!” one user posted on the platform, while another called it “the funniest thing Facebook has ever done.”
Others were less gleeful about the apparent technical issue, calling it “awkward” and “embarrassing.”
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Some users said Facebook sent a request to a person they were trying to block. “Surely this is a privacy issue!” another user complained.
A number of Facebook users said they had deactivated their accounts.
FACEBOOK HAS A GLITCH WHERE EVERY PERSON I STALK AUTOMATICALLY SENDS THEM A FRIEND REQUEST WTF
— soleus (@solealline) May 12, 2023
is anyone else’s facebook sending automatic friend request when they click on a profile?? it was the wrong night to go through my year book & stalk 😂😂💀
— tayla 🎀🤍 (@greatdynasty13) May 12, 2023
i have no idea what's going on but i was JUST gonna stalk someone's profile on facebook and it automatically sends a friend request!@!$?!@?@??????? LEAVE ME ALONE I DON'T WANNA ADD THESE PEOPLE?!@?#?
— kei (@keiikisz) May 12, 2023
This latest bug comes as Facebook’s parent company Meta is in the midst of mass layoffs, which have seen the company cut at least 13 percent of its staff, firing more than 11,000 people.
Last month, a glitch in Facebook ads overcharged customers and forced the company to briefly stop all advertising.
In November, 2022, users reported seeing an uptick in people commenting on celebrity pages in their feed, even if they did not follow the commenter or the celebrities. At the time, Facebook described it as “trouble” caused by “a configuration change.”
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