Thousands of Facebook users around the world reported issues with their news feeds on Wednesday as a glitch appeared to boost posts to celebrity fan pages and groups to the top of timelines.
On Downdetector, an outage tracking website, users posted reports of problems between 07:00 and 09:00 BST.
Many reacted to the glitch with memes mocking Facebook.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, apologised “for any inconvenience” and said the issue was resolved.
A total of 81% of the reports received by Downdetector flagged issues with Facebook feeds, with the rest specifically highlighting the app or website.
Users opening Facebook on mobile and desktop were met with chronological posts to celebrity pages and groups.
Some posted memes to popular Facebook fan pages, such as those for Kim Kardashian, the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift, to make fun of Facebook’s spam-like error. Others also used the opportunity to promote GoFundMe and PayPal fundraisers.
Concerns over the unavailability of content posted by friends and family, usually present for users at the top of their main feed, caused many to wonder whether Facebook had been hacked or flooded with spam.
Facebook outage fears have become more common since WhatsApp and other apps run by Meta stopped working for six hours last October.
Read more via BBC
