Facebook's own account was 'hacked': Bizzare posts raise eyebrows

On October 7, Facebook's blue-ticked official account made a post calling for the release of the former Pakistani president and renowned cricketer, Imran Khan. Another post from the page openly criticised both the Indian and International Cricket Council for visa issues related to the hosting of the World Cup. The posts, which quickly drew significant attention, were swiftly removed, but not before raising eyebrows and sparking speculation about the security of the social media giant's platform.

Reports from the Daily Mail suggest that Facebook's official UK account may have been compromised on Friday evening. This theory gained traction when, at 10:40 PM, a perplexing post appeared on the platform stating, "I don't understand why I suddenly have access to post stuff as Facebook."

This statement, in particular, has led many to lean towards the glitch theory. It suggests that there might have been a system malfunction that mistakenly granted posting privileges to an unintended user. Such an anomaly does not seem to align with the typical patterns of hacking.

Merely minutes later, another message surfaced, addressing the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It read, "Let me take this opportunity to inform the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India that they have completely messed up the event by not issuing visas to those who want to watch the Cricket World Cup."

Three minutes following this, yet another post emerged, reiterating the call to "RELEASE Imran Khan!"

By 11:30 PM, all the posts had been removed from the official account. However, the brief appearance of these messages was enough for many to notice. Given that such a post could be made from a verified page of Facebook, it raises pressing questions about the security status of accounts that have been verified by the platform.

Facebook has yet to release an official statement regarding the incident.