Facebook glitch spams homepage feeds with comments from celebrity pages

Some users have said that one way to stop the spam is to simply log out and log back in. Photo: Dado Ruvic / Illustration

Several Facebook users are reporting an apparent glitch on the social media site, saying random posts from celebrity pages are appearing on their homepage feeds.

The spam appears to stem from pages for Lady Gaga, Eminem, Taylor Swift, Nirvana and Billie Eilish, among others.

While the error seems to predominantly affect users who follow the celebrity accounts, some are reportedly seeing the comments even if they don't.

The issue has made it difficult for users to view posts from friends and other pages. It is believed to stem from a defect with the algorithm that usually filters out the comments.

“Is anybody else’s Facebook news feed acting weird?” one Twitter user wrote. “I’m trying to scroll through my news feed, and all I’m seeing are people posting to pages of people I’m following like Neymar Jr, Eminem, etc.”

A report from a user on Downdetector reads: “My feed is loaded with random people on celebrities pages. Can’t delete or block them and my feed is limited to only a few posts." The website, which is dedicated to tracking the status of various online services, shows thousands have reported the issue in the past two hours.

Some users have said that one way to fix the issue is to simply log out and back in. Others report that unfollowing the celebrity pages stopped the spam.

“I'm pretty sure everyone is seeing the same thing, I don't know what's happened,” another user wrote. “Try unfollowing the celeb pages you're seeing the spam from, and it should stop. At first, I was hiding them all saying I didn't want to see them, but there were just too many.”

Several users have taken advantage of the glitch, posting memes and encouraging others to post on celebrity pages as well. Others, however, are spamming PayPal links or advertising cryptocurrencies.

“Some are seriously offensive,” another user said.

The status dashboard of Meta, the conglomerate behind Facebook, has not yet reported any issues on the matter, although the site is dedicated to tracking developer tools rather than Facebook’s status.

Celebrities who have quit social media — in pictures