Hackers didn't lock you out of your Facebook account. Facebook did.
No, it wasn't the Russians.
A number of Facebook users today reported being randomly locked out of their accounts, and some immediately feared the worst. Was this proof of hackers looking to steal precious vacation photos? Or maybe evidence of Big Brother at work?
Nah.
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A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the culprit behind today's lockout was in fact ... Facebook.
It's not just you...!
Facebook has logged out tons of people and locked their accounts (incl. me!) #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/NhcrV1gVxy— Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) February 24, 2017
“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," explained the spokesperson. "We have fixed the issue and are in the process of clearing the affected accounts from this recovery flow."
Facebook was quick to assure us that the problem was a technical error on the company's end, and did not represent a security threat for the users who were suddenly locked out. It's all good, in other words.
As to how many accounts were affected? Facecbook couldn't say. "We apologize for any inconvenience," the spokesperson added.
Thankfully, the company did clarify that this latest headache is entirely unrelated to the ongoing Cloudflare disaster. At least there's that.
So, what to do if you were one of the users who was locked out? You can either follow the Facebook prompts and reset your password, or, if you're so inclined, do nothing. The issue will resolve by itself and you can go back to posting TRAPPIST-1 jokes.
