By G9ija
- Problem with the app is believed to have begun around 1pm ET
- Facebook is yet to make official announcement regarding the issue
- Users are being kicked out of app and are unable to log back in
- Affecting ‘millions’ worldwide, with a majority living in the northeast of the US
It appears Facebook is experiencing yet another glitch.
Many users have flocked to Twitter to share their frustrations that the social media app forced them out and blocked them from logging back in.
The issue seems to have occurred around 1pm ET and one Twitter user claims it is affecting ‘millions’ of users worldwide – and this is the second problem to plague Facebook this week.
Many users have flocked to Twitter to share their frustrations that the social media app forcing them out and blocking them from logging back in. The glitch seems to have occurred within around 1pm ET and is affecting ‘millions’ of users worldwide – this is the second issue to plague Facebook this week
DownDetector reveals that the issue is affecting areas all around the world, with a majority of these unlucky users residing in the northeastern parts of the US.
‘Earlier today an error in one of our systems designed to help prevent suspicious account access sent a small set of people to our account recovery flow unnecessarily,’ a Facebook spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
‘We have fixed the issue and are in the process of clearing the affected accounts from this recovery flow.
‘We apologize for any inconvenience.’
The bizarre messages received by some users seemed to vary, as some were seeing alerts saying their messages have been erased because they were deemed spam.
Other notifications prompted users to change their passwords, as if they were hacked, but the new credentials were not letting them log back in.
And after others are kicked out of the app, they are sent to the login section and told they’re accounts cannot be verified.
Some users saw the error message and assumed Facebook was censoring them.
‘Facebook is Censoring big time…3 others from my group received same message,’ shared Twitter users @Juskimlin.
A majority of the alerts said, ‘In order to keep your information secure, we’ve locked your account’, which may suggest an account is under attack.
The message also states, ‘Before we can unlock it, please verify your identity and change your pass word’.
Many users have flocked to Twitter to share their frustrations that the social media app forcing them out and blocking them from logging back in. The glitch seems to have occurred around 1pm ET and is affecting ‘millions’ of users worldwide – this is the second issue to plague Facebook this week
‘Your account will remain hidden until you complete the process’.
However, even after completing the steps, users were still unable to access their accounts.
Friday’s glitch appears to be nothing more than a technical error- not a security issue.
And there is no reason to believe these accounts are at risk, nor is there any action that people need to take.
Facebook was also down on February 22, a majority of complaints appeared to originate in UK and Europe, although others reported issues in Australia.
According to Down Detector, which tracks major network outages, the problems started at around 9am GMT (4am ET).
And because the issue is still fairly new, many believed it was a massive hacking incident, as the alert says, ‘In order to keep your information secure, we’ve locked your account’
It is believed over 1,000 complaints were made by angry Facebookers, frustrated by the interruption to their social media fix.
Almost half of the issues reported said there was a total blackout, while 36 per cent reported problems logging in, and 20 per cent reported issues with the app.
Facebook is yet to mention the outage on any of its social media pages, or respond to the many complaints from people about the issue.
Many users have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration with the problem.
Jamie White tweeted: ‘Anyone else having problems with Facebook this morning? Timeline doesn’t seem to be refreshing.’
Dean Marsham posted a screenshot of the problem with his Facebook timeline, in which a notice simply read: ‘No stories to show.’
Facebook was also down on Feb. 22, a majority of complaints appeared to originate in UK and Europe, although others reported issues in Australia
According to Down Detector, which tracks major network outages, the problems started at around 9am GMT (4am ET)
Others took more of a comical approach, such as Ian Evans, who said: ‘Facebook is down…deep breaths, keep calm’, alongside a picture of the apocalypse.
And Sandra Younger joked: ‘Facebook down! Now I’ll never know what you all had for breakfast!’
The outage follows similar problems with Instagram, which Facebook owns, yesterday afternoon.
Jamie White tweeted: ‘Anyone else having problems with Facebook this morning? Timeline doesn’t seem to be refreshing’
Others took more of a comical approach, such as Ian Evans, who said: ‘Facebook is down…deep breaths, keep calm’, alongside a picture of a sign saying ‘apocalypse ahead’
Users in the UK and Europe reported issues posting photos from around 4pm GMT.
Almost half of the issues reported were to do with the news feed, while 37 per cent reported problems logging in, and 13 per cent reported issues with the website.
Despite an onslaught of tweets from users about the outage, Instagram is still yet to reply, or comment on what caused the problems.
Although Facebook prides itself on rarely going down, this isn’t the first time it has left users unable to ‘like’ or post.
A similar glitch seemed to happen in January of last year.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide were unable to use Facebook and Instagram for around an hour.
Hackers from online group Lizard Squad claimed they shut down the two sites at around 6am GMT – but Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire says it was just a technical fault.
But unlike Wednesday’s mishap, Facebook did acknowledge the issue last year.
Dean Marsham posted a screenshot of the problem with his Facebook timeline, in which a notice simply read: ‘No stories to show’
Sandra Younger joked: ‘Facebook down! Now I’ll never know what you all had for breakfast!’
The firm said it was ‘aware’ of trouble accessing the site and added: ‘We’re working to get hings back to normal as quickly as possible.’
In September the social network went down again – three times in the same month.
The third time was for 40 minutes that, the firm said, was due to a ‘configuring issue’.
Source dailymail