There are many perks of being Mark Zuckerberg, besides being a billionaire and owning the world's largest social networking app. How about having the privilege of testing unseen features and even running a special yellow-coloured Facebook app? But that's not all.
It was recently uncovered that the founder of Facebook cannot be blocked on his own social networking site. Doesn't surprise you a bit? Well, the privilege extends to Zuckerberg's wife Priscilla Chan as well.
If you are not surprised by the special treatment extended to these honoured folks, you'll be stunned when you learn the reason behind it. The Facebook profiles of Zuckerberg and Chan do not have a special line of code or an algorithm that prevents their profiles to be blocked.
When you try blocking either one, you'll get a "Block Error," which looks like the ones below:
Would you believe if we told you that Zuckerberg and Chan's profiles cannot be blocked simply because a lot of people have already blocked them? That's the real truth. The feature is similar to the limit on adding friends to your profile.
Wondering why someone would want to block the founder and his wife so badly that it reached the limit?
We did not want to block Zuckerberg or Chan, as their profiles serve as a great source for learning new things about them – be it about their pet Beast or their new-born daughter August. Zuckerberg's personal life, current events, achievements and announcements are usually made through his profile.
"This error isn't specific to any one account," a Facebook spokesperson told Gizmodo. "It's generated when a person has been blocked a certain large number of times. In very rare instances, a viral campaign will develop instructing lots of people to all wrongly block the same person."
"The purpose of this system is to protect the experience for people targeted by these campaigns. We're constantly working to improve our systems and are taking a closer look at this one," the spokesperson added.
Even though Zuckerberg is the mind behind the great social networking site, both Mark and Priscilla are not proactive users. But their healthy dose of social media presence seems to gain some help from Facebook algorithm and are pushed onto people's news feeds, according to The Independent.
Well, that's one reason why someone would want to stay clear of stumbling upon unintended posts. Blocking the duo seems to do the trick, but not anymore. In fact, the ban on blocking Zuckerberg and his spouse have been in place since 2010.
This is a good example of shooting your own foot. On the bright side, if you want to be never blocked again, make sure you get blocked a lot (and we mean a lot...)
