TL;DR
- A bizarre Facebook bug is sending friend request alerts without user input.
- The friend requests are sent just by viewing another profile.
- Meta has yet to acknowledge the issue.
Yikes. If you’re in the habit of stalking profiles on Facebook you might want to respect people’s privacy for a little bit. According to many reports from disgruntled users across social media, Facebook is sending unintended friend requests to other users just by looking at their profiles.
There are plenty of reports on Facebook and Twitter with users complaining about the bug, but we had to test it for ourselves to be sure. Turns out that it’s absolutely real. Check it out in action in the video below and take note of my taps. You’ll notice that while I clicked on my wonderful colleague Hadlee’s profile (look, I don’t use Facebook otherwise we’d already be pals, okay), there was no corresponding tap on the “Add friend” button, it just sent it automatically. Hadlee also confirmed that he received my friend request.
umm… you might want to avoid clicking on user profiles on Facebook for a bit. it’s auto-sending friend requests. pic.twitter.com/ettkXhvXV1
It’s not clear what the cause of the bug is, but it doesn’t yet show on Meta’s Platform Bug Reports website. We’ll keep you updated on any changes, but for now, your safest bet is to not click on any profiles that aren’t already on your friend list.
Have you experienced the bug? Let us know!
