Facebook Tells Users They're Dead

It’s a fitting end to a strange week. When many Facebook users logged on to their accounts on Friday afternoon, they discovered the social network had declared them to be deceased.

The lethal online epidemic is causing Facebook to display a small memorial message above users’ regular homepage profile. In the case of my editor, Rachel King, Fortune tech writers who visited her page discovered a “Remembering Rachel King” message, and a wish to remember to remember and celebrate her life.

I can assure you that Rachel is very much alive (and reminding me about the Oxford comma). But if you’re wondering what it looks like, here’s a screenshot:

I’m still alive (for now) but it appears the bug is spreading quickly to others in the media, and has reportedly even affected the pages of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

 

While Friday’s wave of Facebook fatalities is clearly a bug or a hoax of some sort, the social network does offer a function that allows people to turn the profile pages of loved ones into a “Memorial.”

Update: Facebook has apparently since apologized for a “terrible” mistake.

“For a brief period today, a message meant for memorialized profiles was briefly posted to other accounts. This was a terrible error that we now have fixed. We are very sorry that this happened and we worked as quickly as possible to fix it,” said the company in a statement cited by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Fortune will update when the company tells us what’s going on but, in the meantime, the incident is already giving rise to predictable jibes on Twitter:

So enjoy the end of your week everyone – and possibly your last day on earth.

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com

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