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Happy Friday! Your Facebook Timeline might be broken [UPDATE: It’s fixed]

facebook users experience broken timeline
Image used with permission by copyright holder

[UPDATE:] Facebook has resolved the issue. From a Facebook spokesperson: “Earlier today, we experienced an issue that prevented some people from loading Timeline or Pages content for a brief period of time. We resolved the issue quickly, and content is back to normal. We’re sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused.” Breathe easy, creepers.

Select Facebook users noticed something strange this morning while embarking on their daily Timeline-creeping: Timelines, including their own, were broken. Instead of seeing wall posts and status updates and mobile photo uploads typical of a user’s Timeline, people experiencing this problem saw an information symbol and the following message: “Sorry, but this page didn’t load properly. Please try again.” But no amount of re-loading fixed the Mighty Timeline. 

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As of writing this, Timeline is still broken for many users. While those experiencing the issue can still see what people are saying through the News Feed, clicking through to a friend’s page will prompt the loading error message, as will looking at a user’s own Timeline. 

“We’ve received reports that some people are having trouble loading their Timeline and Pages content. We’re actively investigating this issue,” A Facebook spokesperson told Digital Trends. So: No comment on the cause of the problem, but hopefully it should be resolved soon. 

In the meantime, people are taking to Twitter to express their displeasure: 

Facebook didn’t pick a good time to start being unreliable — rival Twitter went public yesterday, and the IPO yielded high stock prices and lots of happy Twitter execs. Even though Facebook is far larger than Twitter, Facebook has been taking steps to become more like Twitter, since the micro-blogging site is now considered the premiere destination for real-time conversations about world events. Unfortunately, with this Timeline outage, it appears the usually rock-solid Facebook has taken another cue from Twitter: More frequent loading problems. 

Just stay calm, my friends. You will be able to stalk again, soon enough. 

Kate Knibbs
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kate Knibbs is a writer from Chicago. She is very happy that her borderline-unhealthy Internet habits are rewarded with a…
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