Facebook Says Bug Responsible For Not Removing 'Deleted' Videos

Facebook said on Monday that a bug is to blame for its failure to effectively delete users' videos that weren't intended to be posted to the site, according to a report from New York Magazine.

New York Magazine revealed last week that archives of user information downloaded from Facebook contained drafts of videos that were recorded but never posted or published by the user, raising questions about the company's practices.

The so-called bug was discovered by users who made use of Facebook’s new tool called “Access Your Information.” The tool was designed to allow users to view, download and delete every post, comment, reaction and search they made while using Facebook. Digging through the downloaded cache of data also revealed that Facebook saved unpublished videos associated with the user.

The revelation that unpublished video files remained within Facebook’s wealth of user data is another setback for the social media giant amid growing calls for more stringent privacy policies. Instead, the video recording remained and continued to be associated with the user’s account even though it never publicly appeared on Facebook.

According to a Facebook statement, the company said the video files were supposed to be deleted as the user intended but a bug prevented the footage from being fully removed from the social network’s servers.

“We investigated a report that some people were seeing their old draft videos when they accessed their information from our Download Your Information tool,” the company said. “We discovered a bug that prevented draft videos from being deleted. We are deleting them and apologize for the inconvenience.”

Facebook came under fire last month after it was reported that controversial political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica acquired the information of more than 50 million Facebook users and used that data to produce targeted advertisements for political efforts, including Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will reportedly testify before Congress in April. He is expected to face questions about Facebook’s treatment of user information.