Facebook warns 800,000 users that it accidentally unblocked people they had already blocked
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/facebook-bug-unblocks-blocked-users-2018-7
Facebook warns 800,000 users that it accidentally unblocked people they had already blocked
Facebook is warning some 800,000 users that a bug caused the system to unblock some people that they had previously blocked.
It meant that the supposedly-blocked users could view the profiles of people who had blocked them, and send them messages - which isn't supposed to happen after you block them.
The block tool is sometimes used by people to protect themselves from abusive or harassing behaviour.
The bug was live
between May 29 and June 5, Facebook said, and has since been fixed. Users who were affected will receive a message from the company warning them about it.
Blocked users couldn't see posts shared by the person who blocked them that were only visible to their friends - but "someone who was unblocked might have been able to contact people on Messenger who had blocked them," the company says.
A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on how many of these temporarily-unblocked users took advantage of the bug to contact the person who had originally blocked them, or to view profile information that they shouldn't have been able to access.
This is a significant error from Facebook. Victims of harassment or of abusive ex-partners will sometimes use the block feature to prevent aggressors from contacting them or viewing their online activities.
This bug could have given these bad actors an avenue back into their victims' online lives that shouldn't have been open to them.
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