Facebook notifying users about the bug which may have caused their posts to be shared publicly

Facebook has said that they have discovered a bug that was automatically suggesting its users creating their Facebook posts to post publicly. The bug affected 14 million people worldwide.

Facebook clarified that the bug did not impact anything people had posted before, and they could still choose their audience just as they always have.

“This bug occurred as we were building a new way to share featured items on your profile, like a photo. Since these featured items are public, the suggested audience for all new posts – not just these items – was set to public,” Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook said in a blog post.

"The problem has been fixed, and for anyone affected, we changed the audience back to what they’d been using before.”

Facebook’s audience selector is a tool that allows users to select an audience for every post. Located at the bottom right corner of the post editor, using it a user can toggle between, friends, public and only me. One can also customise who can see the post and who cannot, selecting from the friend list.

The period during which the bug affected users is May 18 to May 27. Facebook said that it was sending a notification to the affected users and suggesting them to review Facebook posts they made during that time.

“If you posted publicly, you’ll see a notification when you log in that leads to a page with more information – including a review of posts during this period,” Egan said.

Facebook has faced a lot of flak for its alleged role in spreading fake news and allowing propaganda advertisement on its platform during US presidential polls 2016. Recently it was embroiled in a privacy scandal in which about 87 million users were affected as Cambridge Analytica pawned sensitive information about the users for commercial benefits.