Facebook Says Zuckerberg-Power Is Feature, Not Bug

Facebook has confirmed reports that users are unable to block Mark Zuckerberg, but explained that this is a feature designed to prevent malicious campaigns.

It emerged yesterday that none of Facebook’s 500 million users can block Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Any attempt, by any user, to block him meets with a popup saying “General Block failed error: Block failed.” The news was revealed by blockzuck.com, via Tech Crunch.

Preventing malicious viral campaigns

Today, Facebook has said that Zuckerberg’s non-block power is actually a feature implemented to prevent unfair blocking campaigns. If one person gets “blocked” a certain large number of times, the system decides it is unusual behaviour and ignores it.

“This error isn’t specific to any one account,” said a Facebook spokesperson. “It’s generated when a person has been blocked a certain large number of times.”

“In very rare instances, a viral campaign will develop instructing lots of people to all wrongly block the same person. The purpose of this system is to protect the experience for people targeted by these campaigns.”

In this case, the urge to block Zuckerberg is real – although presumably inspired by the viral nature of blockzuck.com. It’s unlikely that the number of people who have tried to block him have actually personally experienced any behaviour from him that would normally warrant a “block” request.

It is not clear whether Facebook will alter its settings to allow people to block Zuckerberg. “We’re constantly working to improve our systems and are taking a closer look at this one,” said the spokesperson.