Numerous complaints have been made by Facebook users after it was discovered that the social network has been hiding people’s messages in a tucked-away “spam” folder, despite some of the messages coming from friends and family.
It was previously known that the social network hid messages from those who you weren’t “friends” with in a secondary “other” inbox, but now people are starting to find dozens of unread and never before seen messages in an even more hidden away “Filtered Message Requests” tab.
“Not sure when or if you’ll get this as Facebook seems to decide. Anyway I am trying to track old friends of my partner [REDACTED]. Unfortunately [he] passed away last week. I just want to pass this on has he had planned to say goodbye to many people and I am just trying to finish his list,” read one message posted by a user. The recipient of the message claims that he only discovered his friend had passed two months later because of Facebook’s inbox switching.
“Nice one Facebook, this hidden message thing has got my wife in tears. She was contacted by a cousin, who has died since sending the message,” wrote another victim of Facebook’s secret message meddling.
Some people also reported missing messages from others who had found their lost passports.
“Gmail and Google, for all its flaws, has a pretty sensible system,” said the recipient of the first message, Daniel Emery, in a statement to Business Insider. “There is a folder for spam, you can look into it if you want, you can pull things out. It’s not hidden from you, and I think the issue with this is it’s kind of a bit too much ‘nanny state’… Facebook is trying to be overprotective. Overprotective comes at a cost, and things like this happening are exactly that … hiding it is never a good thing.”
To access your “filtered message requests” inbox and see if you have missed anything, go to the messages tab at the top of your feed. At the top where it says “Recent” there should be a faded tab to the right that says “Message Requests”. Once you access this inbox there will be a further button at the bottom which says “See filtered requests”. For instructions on how to access the inbox on a mobile device such as your phone or tablet, you can read WTVR’s article on the subject here.
Charlie Nash is a frequent contributor to Breitbart Tech and former editor of the Squid Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.