| Recurring |
one_organization |
a) The software failure incident related to the Facebook glitch has happened again within the same organization. This incident was not the first time Facebook experienced such issues. The glitch that flooded user feeds with spam posts shared to popular celebrity pages followed by millions of people was a result of a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems determining which posts appear in users' news feed. The glitch appeared to prioritize posts shared to celebrity pages, which are usually filtered out by an algorithm, making Facebook practically unusable for a period of time [131253].
b) The software failure incident related to the Facebook glitch has not been reported to have happened at other organizations. The incident specifically affected Facebook and its users, with thousands of users globally reporting issues with their news feeds being flooded with spam posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages. The glitch was attributed to a configuration change within Facebook's systems, causing the unusual behavior in users' feeds [131253]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident related to the design phase:
The Facebook glitch that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages was attributed to a 'configuration change' as the root cause of the issue. Meta, Facebook's parent company, confirmed that the problem stemmed from a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems determining which posts appear in users' news feed. This indicates that the failure was due to contributing factors introduced by system development or updates [131253].
(b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase:
The glitch affected many Facebook users globally, overwhelming their news feeds with spam posts shared to popular celebrity pages. Users reported issues with their feeds, with some questioning whether the social network had been hacked. However, a security advisor mentioned that the issue was more likely a technical glitch resulting from recent changes Facebook made to its algorithm. This suggests that the failure was due to contributing factors introduced by the operation or misuse of the system [131253]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) The software failure incident with Facebook's glitch that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages was primarily within the system. The incident was caused by a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems determining which posts appear in users' news feed. The glitch was attributed to a 'configuration change' made by Facebook, which resulted in the abnormal flooding of spam posts on celebrity pages to users' feeds [131253]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions, human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in the Facebook glitch was primarily due to a non-human action, specifically a 'configuration change' within Facebook's internal systems. This configuration change caused the glitch that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages [131253].
(b) Human actions also played a role in the incident as trolls took advantage of the glitch to post spam on celebrity pages, including links to pornography, cryptocurrency ads, and PayPal links. These actions exacerbated the impact of the glitch by spreading inappropriate content to the feeds of millions of users who follow public figures [131253]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
software |
(a) The software failure incident in the Facebook glitch was primarily due to contributing factors originating in software. The glitch was caused by a 'configuration change' within Facebook's internal systems, which led to the flood of spam posts on users' news feeds [131253].
(b) The software failure incident was also related to contributing factors originating in software. The glitch was attributed to a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems determining which posts appear in users' news feed. Additionally, Meta, Facebook's parent company, mentioned that recent changes to Facebook's algorithm could have caused the issue [131253]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
non-malicious |
(a) The software failure incident reported in Article 131253 was non-malicious. The glitch that flooded user feeds with posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages was attributed to a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems determining which posts appear in users' news feed. The problem was caused by a 'configuration change' according to Meta, Facebook's parent company. Security experts mentioned that recent changes to Meta's algorithm could have caused the issue, indicating unintentional changes leading to the failure [131253]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
poor_decisions, accidental_decisions |
From the provided articles, the software failure incident on Facebook was primarily attributed to a 'configuration change' made by the company. This change led to a glitch that flooded users' feeds with spam posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages [131253]. This incident can be categorized under both poor_decisions and accidental_decisions:
(a) poor_decisions: The glitch was a result of a configuration change made by Facebook, which can be considered a poor decision as it led to unintended consequences and disrupted the normal functioning of the platform.
(b) accidental_decisions: The glitch was also described as a technical issue resulting from recent changes Facebook made to its algorithm, which could be seen as an accidental decision that unintentionally caused the software failure incident. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident reported in Article 131253 was not attributed to development incompetence. The glitch that flooded Facebook users' feeds with spam posts from celebrity pages was described as a technical issue resulting from a configuration change made by Facebook's internal systems [131253].
(b) The software failure incident was categorized as accidental. The glitch that occurred on Facebook, causing users' feeds to be flooded with spam posts from celebrity pages, was described as a bizarre bug that was not intentional but rather a result of a technical issue with Facebook's internal systems and a configuration change [131253]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
(a) The software failure incident in the Facebook glitch was temporary. The glitch flooded user feeds with spam posts shared to popular celebrity pages, affecting many users globally. The issue started around 7.08 BST and was resolved by around 10:30 BST on the same day [131253]. The root cause was identified as a 'configuration change' within Facebook's internal systems, indicating that the failure was due to specific circumstances introduced by this change rather than being a permanent issue. |
| Behaviour |
crash, omission, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident in the Facebook glitch can be categorized as a crash. Users reported that their news feeds were flooded with spam posts from strangers sharing content on celebrity pages, causing the system to lose its normal state and not perform its intended function of displaying relevant and personalized content [131253].
(b) omission: The glitch also exhibited characteristics of omission. Instead of showing posts from friends or family, users were overwhelmed by memes, cryptocurrency spam, and even pornography. The system omitted to perform its intended function of filtering out spam posts shared to celebrity pages, leading to an inundation of irrelevant content in users' feeds [131253].
(c) timing: There is no specific indication in the articles that the software failure incident was related to timing issues where the system performed its intended functions but at the wrong time.
(d) value: The glitch did not directly relate to a value failure where the system performed its intended functions incorrectly. Instead, the issue was more about flooding feeds with irrelevant content rather than providing incorrect information.
(e) byzantine: The software failure incident did not exhibit characteristics of a byzantine failure where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions.
(f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident can be categorized as an overload. The glitch caused an overload of spam posts on celebrity pages, leading to a flood of irrelevant content in users' news feeds, overwhelming the system and disrupting the normal user experience [131253]. |