Facebook Messages From Years Ago Suddenly Pops Up Like Ghosts

There have been reports from Facebook users that a bug is messing around, and years-old messages are automatically resurfacing for no reasons. The problem was first reported on Twitter, but now Facebook confirmed. Accordingly, old read messages are treated as new unread ones, hence popped up in users’ Messenger tab; however, this explanation was not clear enough.

Answering to the Verge, a Facebook spokesman admitted that several users are spotting old messages popping up on Facebook.com. In his apology, the spokesman said the company knows about the problem is finding solutions to fix this as quickly as possible.

However, there are concerns that the bug may bring back the past conversation which users never want to remember. If you removed the whole chatting history with someone, you’re fine, but the old messages you did not delete it, the entire conversation will resurface, back and forth, without missing any messages. This can be extremely heartbreaking if the bug randomly picks up a conversation with a far gone family member or friend, or an ex.

This accident has happened before. Date back 2015, the On This Day feature on Facebook had an adverse effect when it brought back sad memories along with the happy ones. The incident occurred as the algorithm behind this feature could not tell between cheerful, celebratory posts and unhappy ones. Hence, there were vast complaints from users about how they were reminded of a daughter who passed away as well as other tragic events.

Yet, this time, it is more likely that the accident was caused by a coding error. In fact, users who are complaining about the mistake tend to consider it another random, odd happening on the social network that cannot be explained. Anyway, this accidentally haunting incident only adds up to a pile of scandals involving users’ data and privacy in recent time.