Meta fires staff for taking over accounts of Facebook users

META, the owner of Facebook, has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors in the past year for improperly taking over user accounts, according to reports.

Some have been accused of accepting thousands of dollars to allow hackers to access accounts, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing documents that detailed the investigation.

In some instances, contractors working as security guards were given access to a Facebook tool called “Oops”, an acronym for “Online Operations”, that enables employees to help users who have forgotten their passwords or had their accounts taken over by hackers.

Meta, which also owns Instagram and holds data on more than 3.7bn users, is a prime target for hackers. Meta said last month that it was planning to notify about 1m Facebook users that their account credentials were compromised by malicious apps.

Meta, along with other major technology companies, has also been tricked into providing sensitive personal information about customers in response to fraudulent legal requests. A number of third-party services with access to Meta employees have begun charging users to reset accounts, the WSJ said. A Meta spokesman said that buying or selling accounts or paying for account recovery violates the company’s terms of service.

The reports come as Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg battles to revive his company’s fortunes amid slowing growth and a slump in Meta’s share price. Mr Zuckerberg last week announced that Meta was cutting around 11,000 jobs in the first mass layoffs of the company’s history.