Facebook users experienced the results of a bug that hit the social media giant on Friday, blocking links and hiding posts from profiles.
According to the Telegraph, reports from users began Thursday evening, notifying Facebook that links were being removed for “violating the security policy” as well as reporting that posts were mysteriously disappearing.
The bug was on the social media site’s image-scraping tool, a feature that posts a picture when a link is shared.
Prior to the news of the social media bug, Facebook users who were trying to post links connected to stories regarding the Baltimore riots suspected the website was utilizing selective censorship.
Facebook deleting status about Freddie Gray is absolutely ludicrous. Let people speak! #FreddieGray
— Benjamin Homola (@Littlefooted) April 30, 2015
A Facebook spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that site was in working order by Friday evening. Prior to resolving the problem, Facebook issued the following notice:
An error in our system that helps block bad links on Facebook incorrectly marked some URLs as malicious or inappropriate. As a result, some existing posts were hidden, while other posts were blocked completely. We’ve resolved the issue and the remaining affected URLs are being unblocked. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
