Facebook Bug Removed Some Users From Block Lists of 800,000 Users

Facebook today started notifying more than 800,00 users about a privacy bug on Facebook and Messenger. The company says a bug on its platform reportedly led to random users being removed from some users’ block lists.

The bug would automatically unblock users that you may have blocked on Facebook, meaning they would be able to view some of your posts. Facebook says the bug didn’t allow unblocked users to view all of your content — instead, they could have viewed some posts through a wider audience, such as the friends of your friends, etc. Facebook claims the bug isn’t wide-spread, despite affecting 800 thousand users, stating that the 83% of the people affected only had one person temporarily unblocked.

Affected users will be notified, and the unblocked users have been automatically re-blocked by Facebook. The bug was reportedly active between May 29 and June 5. In other news, Facebook is rolling out a number of API changes for third-party apps to limit information access to protect user’s privacy after the Cambridge Analytica saga.