Issue with Facebook spam filter shuts down social sharing for hours
Some Facebook users encountered a major glitch Monday.
Early in the morning, a technical problem prevented people from posting articles via the share buttons on a number of websites, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Reuters.
A Facebook spokesperson blamed the technical difficulties on an issue with a spam filter, ZDNet reported. That filter is designed to prevent the spread of malware on the social network, but it produced "Message Failed" dialog boxes for some people sharing legit content on Monday.
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Sharing links directly on Facebook -- as opposed to from an outside website -- still worked.
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In its help guide, Facebook explains that a block can last "a few hours or a few days" and that a company "can't lift this block for any reason." However, by Monday afternoon the issue seemed to be resolved.
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These social sharing technical difficulties follow several other Facebook-related fails that have occurred in the past months, including controversy surrounding Facebook Trending Topics and unnecessary censorship.
Topics Cybersecurity Facebook Social Media
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
