Meta (Facebook) has fired and fined approximately 20 employees who accessed the accounts of some users through an internal system designed for rare situations. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that there were cases where these employees took control of Facebook accounts and were sometimes paid to access them without permission.

Accounts were accessed through an internal mechanism called “Oops,” which has existed since the early days of Facebook as a way for employees to help family or friends regain access to their accounts if they forgot their password or if someone hacked their account and they can no longer enter.

This system, designed only for rare situations, was abused by various employees, some of whom were also paid to access certain accounts.

Oops, short for Online Operations, was designed for limited use, mostly for special occasions when employees’ friends, family members, business associates, or dignitaries no longer have access to Facebook accounts. The number of uses of Oops increased from 22,000 times in 2019 to 50,000 the following year.

Sometimes accounts were accessed by security agents who had access to this Oops mechanism.

Meta has launched an internal investigation to find out who is at fault and what happened. The investigation revealed that there were also cases where employees received thousands of dollars in bribes from hackers for accessing certain accounts.

There are also companies that, for a fee, promise to have influential relationships on Facebook and can help users who no longer have access to their own accounts regain that right.

Facebook makes it very clear that a user should never call or trust a company or person who promises to restore access to their personal account.

The incident once again shows that Meta is struggling to manage its platforms, which together have more than 3 billion users.

It’s a big problem when an ordinary person loses access to their own account and wants to find someone from Facebook. In 99% of cases, it is impossible to speak with the employee, even if you have filled out all the forms and sent the necessary proofs and explanations.

Source: Dreamstime.com