If you’ve noticed some inappropriate listings on Facebook’s new Marketplace feature, you’re not the only one.
A technical issue prevented Facebook (FB) from properly filtering posts on Marketplace—the company’s Craigslist-like feature that allows users to buy and sell items within the Messenger app.
The glitch resulted in hundreds of listings for adult services, drugs, animals, and guns mere hours after Marketplace’s debut, according to Facebook. All of these things are prohibited on Marketplace and violate both Facebook’s commerce policy and community standards.
Twitter users posted screen grabs of some of items on Marketplace during the glitch, including baby hedgehogs for $50 and a bag of marijuana for $30.
Https://twitter.com/Helllllas/status/779707092198301701
back in NY we have to just buy our drugs on Facebook pic.twitter.com/K52j7RUlz7
— Tim Bernal (@tombornal) October 3, 2016
Hey @facebook, #Marketplace is off to a good start. Dogs. Guns. Sweet. Pic.twitter.com/NoEpePuV96
— Josh Chace (@JOSHinHD) October 3, 2016
Facebook has since apologized for the weird posts:
“As a result [of the technical issue], certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace,” Mary Ku, Facebook’s director of product management, said in a prepared statement. “We are working to fix the problem and will be closely monitoring our systems to ensure we are properly identifying and removing violations before giving more people access to Marketplace. We apologize for this issue.”
Facebook said it also intends to take “appropriate action to make Marketplace a safe place for people,” according to USA Today.
