Facebook app on a smartphone
Image: AP
There was a major disruption in Facebook’s news feed algorithm on Wednesday morning. Users were shown messages from complete strangers to celebrities. The problem now seems to have been resolved.
VMany users were temporarily unable to use Facebook on Wednesday because their news feeds were flooded with messages from complete strangers to celebrities. Facebook explained the problem to be a configuration error and apologized for the inconvenience.
It hit some users who had subscribed to posts by very popular artists such as Coldplay, Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga on Facebook particularly hard. In some cases, nothing but fan messages could be seen in their feeds.
Some users switched quickly, sending hoaxes or cryptocurrency advertisements via messages to celebrity accounts in hopes of getting more people to see them. In the course of Wednesday morning German time, the error messages on platforms such as alle disturbances.de subsided again. In the meantime, Facebook has been able to fix the problem, as “Spiegel.de” reports in relation to a statement from the company.
