Has Facebook been hacked? Glitch floods feeds with random posts

Facebook users were hit with a meltdown today after their feeds were flooded with random spam posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity sites.

The social network’s 2.8 billion global users reported falling victim to the bizarre bug that filled newsfeeds with memes, pornography and cryptocurrency spam.

Celebrity pages that boast tens or hundreds of millions of followers appear to have been targeted by trolls, who exploited the glitch to send a flood of spam to those who had once “liked” a popular page.

Anyone who shared content on the pages of famous bands, athletes, and influencers then got it aired in the feeds of the millions of people who followed them — rendering Facebook all but useless.

Posts shared to popular accounts are usually filtered out, but security experts today told MailOnline that Meta’s recent changes to its algorithm may be behind the problem.

Angry Facebook users quickly vented their outrage online. Many vented their frustration that their feeds were filled with random posts and feared their personal accounts had been hacked.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has been reporting problems since 7:08am BST, according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages.

A Meta spokeswoman told MailOnline: “We are aware that some people are experiencing issues with their Facebook feed. We are working to get things back to normal as soon as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.’

The social network’s 2.8 billion global users reported falling victim to the bizarre bug that filled newsfeeds with cryptocurrency memes, pornography and spam. Pictured: One of thousands of memes shared on a celebrity page dedicated to footballer Paul Pogba

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has been reporting problems since 7:08am BST, according to website Downdetector, which monitors website outages

Posts shared on popular celebrity sites are usually filtered out, but security experts today told MailOnline that Meta’s recent changes to its algorithm may have caused the problem

Celebrity pages that boast tens or hundreds of millions of followers appear to have been targeted by trolls, who exploited the glitch to send a flood of spam to those who had once “liked” a popular page

A seemingly harmless image of a turkey sandwich was soon shared far and wide across the Facebook feed thanks to the bizarre glitch

The Rick Rolled meme was shared on the official Facebook page by Eminem and his 94 million followers

Over 2,000 people in the UK have reported problems, with 80 per cent of those claiming the problem is related to their feeds, Downdetector shows.

Users in the US, Australia and elsewhere in the world are also reporting the issue.

Several Facebook users questioned whether the social network had been hacked, although Jake Moore, a security consultant at ESET, said it wasn’t likely.

“Although it looks like Facebook has been hacked, it’s more likely that it’s a technical error resulting from some recent changes Facebook has made to its algorithm,” he told MailOnline.

“Until the issue is resolved, you may need to unfollow the fraudulent accounts you see in your feed.”

Facebook users flocked to Twitter to share their experiences of the bizarre bug.

Twitter user @maymaywala said: “@facebook is down or what???? My feed is full of what random people are commenting on celebrity sites.

Another user, @Zeeshan0961, said: “What the heck is that @facebook? My entire timeline is full of people posting on celebrity walls.

According to website Downdetector, which monitors website downtime, Facebook has been having problems since 7:08 a.m. CET.

Over 2,000 people in the UK have reported issues, with 80 per cent of them claiming the issue is related to their feeds. Users seem to be affected worldwide

Problems have also been reported on Downdetector.com by millions of users in the United States

“Facebook glitch!! What’s up’: Users are quick to jump to Twitter when there’s an outage

One Twitter user, @CallMeElektra, took a screenshot of her Facebook feed showing a random person posting on rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers’ page.

Another person posted footage of random posts on musicians Eminem and Billie Eilish’s pages, claiming it impacted his “entire feed.”

It appears to be a global issue – a user from Melbourne, Australia had seen a post by someone who had posted on American actor Vin Diesel’s page.

Another concerned user shared his experience from New Delhi, India, saying Facebook is acting “drunk and funny”.

Facebook users flocked to Twitter to share their experiences of the bizarre glitch, which the site’s owner, Meta, has yet to comment on

It seems the glitch isn’t affecting every Facebook user.

It’s possible that the issue is related to long-term changes being made to the Facebook feed for users worldwide.

Meta splits the Facebook homepage into two separate tabs – “Feeds” which focus on chronological posts and “Home” which focuses on promoted posts.