A Facebook glitch prompted some users on the social network Thursday to see a post from the company congratulating them for the impossible: 46 years of friendship.
Some users had not been alive for 46 years, Facebook was founded in 2004 and even the Internet didn t exist.
On this day 46 years ago, December 31, 1969, I became friends with 67 people on Facebook. WTF? Go home Facebook, you re drunk.
This 46-year friendship Facebook glitch has to be 2015 s last ditch effort at clinging to bad Back To The Future memes. — Kevin W. (@kevinwhiteman)
What s with saying we ve all been friends for 46 years? Is this like the Y2K glitch? #2016
Facebook spokeswoman Annabel Gould said in a statement to SiliconBeat that We ve identified this bug and the team s fixing it now so everyone can ring in 2016 feeling young again. Gould declined to provide any additional information, including what caused the error.
But sure enough, theories began to circulate online about the cause and specifically why the number 46 popped up.
Some tech employees, including Microsoft software engineer Mark Davis, speculated that the glitch was tied to a computer operating system called Unix that counts the number of seconds that have gone by since January 1, 1970 or in some time zones Dec. 31, 1969, which is 46 years ago.
A developer friend of mine explains why Facebook is saying you ve been friends with people for 46 years
Others suspected that the glitch was a PR stunt. But the explanation, some quipped, might be a simple one.
When everyone at Facebook starts drinking 16 hours early
Photo Credit: Screenshot.
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