(NewsNation Now) — Just before 9 p.m. CST, some Facebook users began reporting issues with the social media platform’s mobile app forcing them to log out and log back in again. Facebook said Saturday the log out was caused by a “configuration change.”
The company didn’t specify the details of the configuration change that caused the mass log out. Users reported having to log back into their accounts. Many users got the message “session expired.” The so-called mass log out led to many questions across social media platforms as the topic trended on Twitter.
As for this author, I personally encountered the log out event on the Facebook app around 9 p.m., but didn’t have any trouble logging back in after seeing the “session expired” message.
After logging back in, the first post at the top of my newsfeed was from a coworker at NewsNation affiliate WIAT reporting she experienced the same thing, and from the comments, so had many of the people following her page:
A quick Twitter search showed many others encountered the same issue, with a few reporting trouble receiving the two-factor authentication text to regain access to their account, or just not remembering their password.
DownDetector.com, a website where users can report issues with various websites and services, showed a spike in Facebook-related reports beginning around 8:40 p.m. CDT. 84% of the reports were log in related.
A quick survey of coworkers across NewsNation affiliate stations revealed others, located in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Illinois, all experienced the forced log out on the Facebook app.
In a statement to NewsNation late Friday, a Facebook spokesperson said:
“We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.”
So far, Facebook has not publicly acknowledged the apparent widespread log out event.
NewsNation affiliate WKRG’s Chris Best contributed to this report
