In the funniest glitch to possibly grace the internet, a Facebook bug was recently caught auto-sending friend requests to accounts people had viewed.
Yes, that means if you were randomly stalking the surprise pregnancy of Sarah, the girl who was in the same English class as you in Year 9, she would have been sent a friend request from you.
Dear. God.
Fb is legit adding randoms if you click on their profile.
Got a screen record here.@facebook wtf?!#Facebook #glitch #facebookadd pic.twitter.com/S7lxPhQU6F
— Bavid Mcjavid (@bavidmcjavid) May 12, 2023
It’s actually kind of hilarious. Not in a haha way, but more in a really anxiety-inducing way.
Us social media stalkers have often found pride in our ability to find the profile of a person our friend is dating, simply from their first name. Now, nowhere is safe.
The glitch saw any account a user had visited be automatically sent a friend request. The bug lasted for less than a day until it was fixed by the Meta team.
“We fixed a bug related to a recent app update that caused some Facebook friend requests to be sent mistakenly,” a Meta representative told The Daily Beast.
“We’ve stopped this from happening and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
FACEBOOK HAS A GLITCH WHERE EVERY PERSON I STALK AUTOMATICALLY SENDS THEM A FRIEND REQUEST WTF
— soleus (@solealline) May 12, 2023
But despite the relatively quick fix, it appears as if the damage was done, with the internet left reeling from their Facebook stalking endeavours.
The internet took to the (virtual) streets to share their horror stories.
is anyone else’s facebook sending automatic friend request when they click on a profile?? it was the wrong night to go through my year book & stalk 😂😂💀
— tayla 🎀🤍 (@greatdynasty13) May 12, 2023
Apparently someone said this is a facebook glitch please tell me this isnt true!! 😭😭😭 i just stalked my crush’s whole family down to his brother’s gf. Tell me this aint so pic.twitter.com/PNWn6OuzY5
— aidababy ♡ (@bhadbubbles) May 13, 2023
One TikTok simply showed all the friend requests they had been sent on the day, a sure sign that they’re hot stalking material.
“Well, now I’m embarrassed because I’ve gotten zero friend requests,” one TikToker aptly commented. Preach, sister.
@dreamercail ♬ Frolic (Theme from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” TV Show) – Luciano Michelini
“RIP I just looked at my husband’s estranged family’s profiles last night,” another said.
Others drew attention to a worldwide phenomenon — the temptation to look up your ex’s mum on Facebook.
“My ex’s mom gonna be so confused,” one commented.
Pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.
@yumisgone
Naturally, the huge fuck up has drawn attention to how many of us are just not the main character. What’s worse? Getting caught snooping or having zero friend requests?
Understandably, the issue caused a royal shitstorm on social media with worries about user privacy and control.
It’s easy to check if you’ve been a victim of Facebook’s absolute chaos era. Just go to the sidebar, click Friends -> Friend requests -> View sent requests.
