Facebook feeds flooded with celebrity spam

Thousands of Facebook users around the world reported issues with their news feeds on Wednesday as a glitch appeared to boost posts to celebrity fan pages and groups to the top of timelines.

On Downdetector, an outage tracking website, users posted reports of problems between 07:00 and 09:00 BST.

Many reacted to the glitch with memes mocking Facebook.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, apologised “for any inconvenience” and said the issue was resolved.

A spokesperson told the BBC, “Earlier today, a configuration change caused some people to have trouble with their Facebook feed. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted.”

A total of 81% of the reports received by Downdetector flagged issues with Facebook feeds, with the rest specifically highlighting the app or website.

Users opening Facebook on mobile and desktop were met with chronological posts to celebrity pages and groups.

Some posted memes to popular Facebook fan pages, such as those for Kim Kardashian, the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift, to make fun of Facebook’s spam-like error. Others also used the opportunity to promote GoFundMe and PayPal fundraisers.

Concerns over the unavailability of content posted by friends and family, usually present for users at the top of their main feed, caused many to wonder whether Facebook had been hacked or flooded with spam.

Facebook outage fears have become more common since WhatsApp and other apps run by Meta stopped working for six hours last October.

The issues comes after Meta announced new changes to Facebook feeds last month.

These presented users with new options to customise feeds in a separate tab on Facebook’s mobile iOS and Android versions.

Meta has faced criticism over changes to Facebook and Instagram designed to help it compete with TikTok and its short-form video success.

Facebook’s new news feed allows users to create reels from its homepage and have more control over the content they can see and discover.