Facebook down for many users

The hashtag #facebookdown started trending on twitter after many facebook users realised they were unable to access their accounts on February 24. The affected users received a message saying someone may have tried to hack into their accounts but a Facebook spokesperson has confirmed via an email to the Daily Mail, and others, that the incident was due to a system error and not a hacking attempt. According to the users who posted on twitter, many of them were kicked out of their accounts while they were already logged in. A security message then notified users of suspicious activity and redirected them to answer a few security questions and change their passwords, but users were still unable to log in afterwards.

Thanks for the panic attack Zuckerberg! #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/ReUsSznLjQ

— Erin Gallagher (@3r1nG) February 24, 2017

Others even received alerts that all of their messages have been deleted for being spam, reports The Independent. A Facebook spokesperson has said in an email to the Daily Mail: “Earlier today an error in one of our systems designed to help prevent suspicious account access sent a small set of people to our account recovery flow unnecessarily. We have fixed the issue and are in the process of clearing the affected accounts from this recovery flow. We apologise for any inconvenience.” While the glitch affected accounts of users all over the world, the most heavily affected areas are in Europe and in the East Coast of the US, reported the website Down Detector. However, as the issue appears to have been a system error and not an actual hacking, Mic.com assured users that there is nothing to worry about and there is no need to change their password. Affected users just have to wait until the error is fixed.