Facebook users are complaining that the site is resurfacing old photos and re-posting them to their timelines, apparently because of a glitch in the news feed analytics system.
The “ghost posting” seems to be a system-wide problem, with users complaining on Twitter that they’re seeing memories from one, two and three years ago pop up in their feeds without their permission or knowledge.
OK, so why is Facebook reposting a bunch of my old pictures all of a sudden?
— A.J. Kleinheksel (@AJKleinhex) December 9, 2016
Check your Facebook feed folks. Glitch this morning has Facebook reposting old photos.
— Amy Collins (@NewShelvesBooks) December 9, 2016
@facebook has gone crazy. It seems to be reposting people’s pics without their knowledge.
— patmarinich (@patmarinich) December 9, 2016
Facebook is randomly reposting old pictures today. On a bunch of accts
— Jennifer Garcia (@Pixxiemeat) December 9, 2016
The Facebook matrix is broken and is reposting pictures from this summer. There is a glitch in the machine! #facebookbroken
— Ron Katz, Esq. (@SUPLawyer) December 9, 2016
WTF @facebook? Why are you reposting old posts to my timeline w/o my permission? 😡 #facebook
— Cindy N (=^o^=) 🎀 (@Cindy_2029) December 9, 2016
It’s not immediately clear what led to the glitch, though the U.S. and U.K. seem to be most affected, and the “ghost-posted” photos seem, primarily, pictures that were cross-posted from Facebook’s sister application, Instagram.
For most users, Facebook is resurfacing only one or two posts—but at least one unlucky user posted on Twitter that Facebook had reposted an old photo of his more than 50 times.
The bug could be the result of a hack, but Facebook is also testing several new options that could mean changes to photo uploading and Instagram cross-posting: a Snapchat-like feature that allows Facebook users to record short videos and share them over its Messenger service; a “photo filters” feature that gives users the option to add location- and holiday-specific frames to their pictures; and an import feature that would let users transfer over their “Instagram stories,” similar to short-term video posts.
The social networking platform is also toying with a 2016 “year in review” feature that automatically pulls from users 2016 posts, providing them with an individualized video retrospective of their year, and that could also be responsible for the random timeline postings.
Nice how Facebook is giving a lot of us a surprise year in review by randomly reposting any old thing on our timelines. Really thoughtful.
— daniel modell (@dMnyc) December 9, 2016
Just last month, Facebook ran into trouble after another glitch tuned Facebook user profiles into memorials. Facebook apologized for the anomaly, which they say appeared after they tested a “memorial option” into certain users accounts.
Heat Street has reached out to Facebook for comment on this latest bug, but has not yet received a response.