Jul 2, 2018 - Technology

Facebook says bug temporarily unblocked users

David McCabe

Facebook has been grappling with privacy controversies very publicly since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal broke. Photo: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

Facebook experienced a bug that temporarily unblocked some users from interacting with users who had previously blocked them.

Why it matters: Once again, the company is apologizing for a user privacy violation, this time in a feature that is key to address harassment and abuse. "We know that the ability to block someone is important — and we’d like to apologize and explain what happened," said Erin Egan, the company's chief privacy officer, in a Monday blog post.

The details:

Egan said that beginning "today we are notifying over 800,000 users about a bug in Facebook and Messenger that unblocked some people they had blocked."
Blocking a user also unfriends them, and Egan said that the bug that unblocked some users did not restore those Facebook friendships. It did, however, allow the formerly-blocked user to view content posted by the person who had blocked them if it was shared beyond their immediate Facebook friends.
"The bug was active between May 29 and June 5 — and while someone who was unblocked could not see content shared with friends, they could have seen things posted to a wider audience," she said in the blog post.

Separately, Facebook announced on Monday a further tightening of the ways developers could access user information on Monday as it continues to try to address privacy concerns.

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Facebook says bug temporarily unblocked users

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