--- title: "Fact Check: Is Facebook Down Because 1.5 Billion Users’ Data Was Stolen?" description: "Facebook is down. Which means misinformation about the cause of the outage has hit Twitter hard, including dubious reports of a Facebook leak." date: "2021-10-04" modified: "2021-10-04" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/fact-check-facebook-down-user-data-stolen" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Data Privacy" - "Future Society" tags: - "data leak" - "facebook" - "hackers" --- # Fact Check: Is Facebook Down Because 1.5 Billion Users’ Data Was Stolen? ![Facebook is down. Which means misinformation about the cause of the outage has hit Twitter hard, including dubious reports of a Facebook leak.]() *\Image: Futurism\* Unless you've been using the internet under a rock, you've probably noticed that Facebook, along with several of its other services, is down. Like, [really down](). Ironically, despite one of the largest sources of misinformation disappearing, people immediately flocked to alternative platforms like Twitter to find out the reason why the biggest social media platform in the world went AWOL — and ended up sharing plenty of misinformation there as well. On Twitter, for instance, many dubious accounts started claiming that the "data of over 1.5 billion Facebook users" was "being sold on a popular hacking-related forum," citing a [writeup]() by a website called *Privacy Affairs,* a Romania-based cybersecurity research firm. "This constitutes the biggest and most significant Facebook data dump to date," *Privacy Affairs* claimed in its piece, referring to a user of a "known hacker forum" posting an announcement about the big hack. The timing of the tweet couldn't have hit harder, given the massive outage — despite the fact that the forum posts date back to September 22. Tweets echoing the claim picked up tens of thousands of likes and shares, including by [several other]() [verified Twitter accounts]() with significant followings. But whether the purported hack — and its authenticity — has anything to do with Facebook's massive outage seemingly flabbergastingly unlikely. The consensus among cybersecurity experts [is that]() it's far more likely that the downtime is related to human error rather than hacking. Several Facebook security team members also [told *The New York Times*]() that it was unlikely a cyberattack caused the issues. "It could well have been the result of an internal, system-wide change or update that went awry," journalist Brian Krebs [wrote in a tweet](). " It's all speculation at this point why. Facebook alone is in control over its DNS records." There have been [several instances]() in the last couple of years that support that theory. The massive outage also came the day after Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower behind the leak of a [gigantic cache of documents]() dubbed "The Facebook Files," came [forward with a high-profile interview with *CBS*](). The documents leak appears to be unrelated to the purported hack of Facebook user data. We still don't know what exactly caused Facebook and many of its services to disappear, and it's not exactly surprising that rumors are absolutely swirling right now. The Facebook outage certainly leaves a massive hole in internet traffic across much of the Western world. And the same goes for misinformation. Perhaps this what a world without Facebook looks like? **READ MORE:** [Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp hit by global outage]() \[*Reuters*\] **More on the outage:** *[Something Very Strange Is Going on at Facebook]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()