If your Facebook account has been affected by this bug, it is possible that one or more blocked persons were temporarily unlocked between May 29th and June 5th.
Everyone can make mistakes, even Facebook. And after the bug that changed the default privacy settings of 14 million people's publications, Facebook apologizes again for another bug that caused the unlock of contacts blocked by 800 000 users.
When you block someone on Facebook, this person no longer sees you on the social network and is no longer able to contact you or interact. This is usually the feature you use when you are being bullied.
But between May 29th and June 5th, profiles blocked by these 800 000 users affected by the bug were accidentally unlocked, and were therefore able to get in touch.
« .. And even if the accounts that were unlocked could not see the content shared with friends, they could have seen things posted to a wider audience. For example shared pictures with friends of friends. We know that the ability to block someone is important – and we would like to apologize and explain what happened, says Erin Egan, Chief Privacy officer.
It ensures that the bug did not restore friendships that were suppressed by a deadlock and that 83% of the affected people had only one person unlocked in the blacklist. "Someone who was unlocked might have been able to contact the people on Messenger who had blocked them," she admits though.
And since then, Facebook has fixed this bug. "This problem has been solved and everyone has been blocked again." Now Facebook is starting to report the 800 000 people affected with a notification. The social network also encourages these users to control their blocked lists, and to go to the Security Center of the app.
Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook seems to be more transparent when there are leaks or bugs like this. A similar message had been sent after the scandal burst, to affected users.