Facebook users were today hit with a meltdown after their feeds were flooded with random spam posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages.
Thousands of the social network’s 2.8billion global users reported falling victim to the bizarre bug that filled news feeds with memes, pornography and cryptocurrency spam.
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.
Anyone sharing content to 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 accounts are usually filtered out of feeds, but security experts today told MailOnline that Meta’s recent changes to its algorithm may have been behind the issue.
Furious Facebook users were quick to share their outrage online, with many venting their frustration at their feeds being filled with random posts and fearing their personal accounts had been hacked.
User reports indicate Facebook started having problems 7:08 AM BST, according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages. As of around 10.10 GMT (04.10 EST) most news feeds appeared to be returning to normal.
A spokeswoman for Meta, the company which owns Facebook, told MailOnline: ‘Earlier today, a configuration change caused some people to have trouble with their Facebook Feed.
‘We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.’
The social network’s 2.8billion global users reported falling victim to the bizarre bug that filled news feeds with memes, pornography and cryptocurrency spam. Pictured: One of the thousands of meme shared to a celebrity page dedicated to footballer Paul Pogba
Meta, the company which owns Facebook, has reported problems since 7:08 AM BST, according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages
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
Over 2,000 people in the UK reported problems, with 80 per cent of those claiming the issue is with their feeds, Downdetector showed.
Users in the US, Australia and elsewhere in the world were also quick to report issues on Wednesday.
The problem appeared to stem from a technical issue with Facebook’s internal systems that determine which posts appear on a user’s news feed.
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 to Twitter to share their experiences of 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’.
Facebook has been having problems since 7:08 AM BST, according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages.
Issues were also reported on Downdetector.com by millions of users in the United States
Over 2,000 people in the UK have reported problems, with 80 per cent of those claiming this issue is with their feeds. Users globally appear to be affected
‘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, is yet to comment on
One Twitter user, @CallMeElektra, took a screenshot of her Facebook feed, showing a random person posting on the page of rock band the 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.
It’s possible the issue may have been related to planned long-term changes that are being made to Facebook’s feed for users globally.
Meta is splitting the Facebook homepage into two separate tabs – ‘Feeds’, which is focused on chronological posts, and ‘Home’, which focuses on promoted posts.