Meta is cracking down on employees who abuse their positions, say sources at The Wall Street Journal, which reported that the company has fired or punished more than two dozen employees for hacking Facebook and Instagram accounts in the past year.
Some of the perpetrators reportedly used the “Oops” account recovery tool and even received thousands of dollars in kickbacks from strangers trying to access these accounts.
Oops allows workers to submit reports about accounts that are inaccessible and intended to be used only on rare occasions, which raises questions about the origin of the request.
The newspaper had reported that the use of this tool had increased in recent years, from 22,000 applications in 2017 to 50,270 applications in 2020.
Andy Stone, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement that the company will continue to take appropriate action against anyone selling fraudulent services.
The layoff is small compared to the company’s headcount and comes nearly a year after allegations that Meta allowed VIPs to break the rules and three years after the company discovered employees had access to the passwords of exposed users .
