Facebook swats bug that disabled accounts

(AFP PHOTO LOIC VENANCE)

Facebook said Tuesday a bug in a system designed to detect fake profiles had disabled a number of legitimate accounts on the social network.

Facebook did not say how many accounts were disabled by the bug, which primarily affected women's accounts, according to technology blogs.

"Earlier today, we discovered a bug in a system designed to detect and disable likely fake accounts," a Facebook spokesman said.

"The bug, which was live for a short period of time, caused a very small percentage of Facebook accounts to be mistakenly disabled," the spokesman said in a statement.

"Upon discovering the bug, we immediately worked to resolve it," he said. "It's now been fixed, and we're in the process of reactivating and notifying the people who were affected."

Facebook has more than 500 million members around the world.