Facebook: SMS spam on two-factor authentication was a bug

Facebook has indicated that a bug is causing text messages to be received after enabling two-factor authentication. Earlier it appeared that users were receiving SMS spam with links to posts from others.

The social networking site has announced in a message on its website that it is an error. Through Alex Stamos, who works at Facebook as Chief Security Officer, the company said it did not intend to send non-security-related text messages to users who have enabled two-factor authentication. Facebook is therefore going to adjust this, so that the SMS spam that occurred with some users should disappear. The relevant update should be released in the coming days.

It also turned out that responding to the text messages ensured that the response appeared as a post on Facebook. This is a functionality that Facebook has had for some time, and ensures that users without mobile internet can still post a message on the site via SMS. However, because mobile internet is ubiquitous these days, this functionality will eventually be disabled, according to Facebook.

Facebook has been criticized in recent days when it was revealed that SMS spam was being sent to users who had enabled two-factor authentication. There was speculation that Facebook had secretly introduced this as a new feature, but Facebook swears that’s not the case.