Facebook Breaks The Web: Error With Widgets Causes Sites To Disappear

Facebook LogoTried to reach one of your favorite websites recently only to get a mysterious Facebook error showing up? It looks like Facebook widgets are to blame.

We just had this happen to our sites, and there are widespread reports that other sites are having the same issue:

(20) Twitter _ Search - facebook error

Sites such as CNN, the Huffington Post and Slate were just some of the many hit.

If you’re logged into Facebook, and you go to a site using Facebook Like or Share buttons, there’s a chance you’ll see this rather than the page you wanted:

Facebook Error

The solution is to log-out of Facebook. If you do that, you should be able to access the site you wanted.

If you’re a publisher, the solution is to disable your Facebook widgets, until the problem is solved. When will that be? We have a question out to Facebook and will let you know, when we hear.

Postscript: After about 15-20 minutes, this was fixed. Facebook also gave us this statement:

For a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people from third party sites with Facebook Login to Facebook.com. The issue was quickly resolved.

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Top News


About The Author: is Founding Editor of Marketing Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search marketing and internet marketing issues, who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also serves as Chief Content Officer for Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He has a personal blog called Daggle (and keeps his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

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  • http://twitter.com/kalena kalena

    Last sentence: When *will* that be :-)

  • http://searchengineland.com/ Danny Sullivan

    thanks! got it.

  • http://www.maxminzer.com/ Max Minzer

    I created an account with MeetUp earlier today (didn’t use Facebook to create an account).
    Site crashed on me once I confirmed my email account and went on the site.

    Danny, is Facebook still taking over my MeetUp account in some way even though I didn’t use it to sign up?

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