Facebook users may have made posts ‘public’ due to bug

Facebook found a bug on its site and app that caused 14 million users to change their post’s default setting from “friends only” to “public” last month. It is unknown how many posts were accidentally made public.

The 14 million users whose posts may have been accidentally publicly accessible have been notified, Facebook writes. They can view posts again between May 18 and May 27 and adjust the setting for whom the posts are intended in a separate menu.

The bug caused those users to default to “public” when creating a new post between May 18 and 22 in the app and on the site, where it would normally be “friends only”. It then took until May 27 for all users to return to “friends only,” Facebook says.

The bug didn’t change the option after publishing, but it just gave the wrong suggestion when making a post. The status has not been changed after publication, Facebook says. It is unknown how many posts were accidentally made public, when they were only intended for contacts.