As a result of the bug, over 1,000 workers across 22 departments at Facebook have been reportedly affected. Among these staff members around 40 worked in a counter-terrorism unit based at Facebook’s European headquarters in the Irish capital of Dublin.
The newspaper added that six workers in the counter-terrorist unit had been assessed as "high priority" victims of the mistake, after Facebook had concluded that their personal profiles had likely been viewed by potential terrorists.
A man who was interviewed by the newspaper, claimed that he had to flee Ireland and hide after several people associated with a suspected terrorist group, which had been banned from Facebook, viewed his profile.
Social media have turned into a platform for a range of extremist and terrorist groups, including Daesh (outlawed in Russia), which have been actively using Facebook, Twitter and Telegram to attract new recruits. Different approaches to countering extremism on the Internet have been used, including massive state surveillance and raids of social media against terrorist accounts that involved blocking thousands of accounts and pages. Despite the efforts, terrorists remain active on social networks worldwide.
