Among those laid off were contractors who worked as security guards at various facilities of the social network. They had access to a built-in Oops tool that allowed them to help their acquaintances and friends when they needed to access an account they had forgotten their password to, or when accounts were locked. Over time, a real black market has emerged in providing services to users who have lost access to their accounts.

What did journalists learn?

The Errors tool (short for Online Action) is not available to casual users, but is intended for internal use by moderators and administration only. Its abuse has already brought thousands of dollars to the people who have been released. They worked through intermediaries connecting the client to the artist.

Journalists of The Wall Street Journal write that the case is not limited to the usual recovery of friends’ accounts. For example, in one case contractor Meta helped unnamed third parties illegally take over the Instagram accounts of others. As it all came to light, the person claimed that they were tricked into using Oops to reset their account data.

In another case, a contractor was fired after an internal investigation revealed that he had put several accounts into hackers’ hands. The woman reportedly received several bitcoin payments from the attackers in exchange for her services.