sciencetech-blog

comments

An unknown bug on Facebook is blocking millions of news links from being posted on the site.

People all over the world are reporting posts disappearing and links being removed for 'violating the security policy'.

The issue appeared yesterday on the social network's image-scraping tool which automatically posts pictures from shared links.

An unknown bug on Facebook is blocking millions of news links from being posted on the site. Many news organisations are reporting posts disappearing and links being removed for 'violating the security policy'

It was first reported in Facebook's developer forum, but according to The Verge, the resulting fix has now broken the system completely.

Since the image-scraping tool issue, DailyMail.com has had a number of its news links blocked from Facebook, while other updates have failed to appear on the site.

For those affected by the bug, a cryptic security message appears when attempting to share a link.

'This message contains content that had been blocked by our security systems,' it says. 'If you think you're seeing this by mistake, please let us know.'

Thousands took to Twitter in frustration. One user, Sina Mashek, wrote: 'Looks like Facebook is taking another step toward guiding what is "okay" for people'

The problem was first reported in Facebook's developer forum, but it appears the resulting fix has now broken the system completely

Thousands took to Twitter in frustration. One user, Sina Mashek, wrote: 'Looks like Facebook is taking another step toward guiding what is "okay" for people.' 

This isn't the first time this year that Facebook has experienced issues with its service.

In January, millions of people were unable to use Facebook after hackers from online group Lizard Squad claimed to have shut it down.

Facebook, which also owns Instagram, denied it was hacked and blamed the outage on 'a change that affected our configuration systems'. 

Facebook did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com for comment.

NOW FACEBOOK CAN FOLLOW YOU ON OTHER SITES

Facebook can now track activity outside the website, including online searches and some of the details users share with retailers

Facebook has started collecting information about the other websites users visit, the links they click on and their searches.

The social media site already harvests details people share on their profiles, including where they went to school, their interests and where they live.

But under a new privacy policy – to which anyone who has signed into Facebook since Friday has been opted in automatically – it can track activity outside the website, including online searches and some of the details users share with retailers.

A Facebook spokesman said: 'It takes into account pages and places visited on Facebook, alongside browsing on the internet.'

She added that the changes help Facebook 'to better serve more relevant advertising to you.'

The site uses cookies – small files which it places on your web browser or device – to collect information which can then be transmitted back to Facebook.

The new terms were introduced as part of a wider update to Facebook's privacy policy, which - the social network claimed - was designed to make the rules easier to understand.

However, most users remain unaware of the radical change they have signed up for.