Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has laid off more than 24 employees and freelancers in the past year for illegally taking over the accounts of users of the social media platform.
This is reported by the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal based on insiders and documents from the investigation into fraudulent practices.
Some employees were accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes to give hackers access to user accounts. A spokesperson for Meta told the newspaper that the company will “continue to take appropriate action” against people who unlawfully resell access to user accounts and data to hackers.
In some cases, freelancers working as security guards were given access to a Facebook tool called “Oops,” short for “Online Operations,” that allows employees to help users who have forgotten their passwords or whose accounts have been taken over by hackers.
According to the newspaper, third parties also offered services with the help of Facebook employees, where users had to pay to reset their accounts. However, according to the Meta spokesperson, buying or selling accounts or paying for account recovery is against the company’s terms of service.
