Facebook redirection bug temporarily takes over many prominent websites

Facebook really may be taking over the Internet: on Friday, a bizarre redirect bug originating from the iconic social network temporarily redirected users attempting to access sites such as Gawker and the Washington Post to a Facebook error message.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that only logged-in Facebook users saw the error message, indicating that the problem likely lay with Facebook's "Connect" service, which controls comments and "likes."

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Sites blocked included CNN, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and NBC News, NBC reported Friday, adding that the bug lasted from 15 minutes to an hour for most users.

Facebook informed NBC in a terse e-mail that "for a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people from third party sites with Facebook Login to Facebook.com. The issue was quickly resolved."

Gizmodo.com — one of the affected sites — reflected Friday that it's "a little bit scary to think that one measly Like button can destroy the entire Internet, isn't it?"

It's widely anticipated that Facebook will share a more detailed account of the incident with the Internet at large in the near future.

At the end of January, Facebook announced that it had beat Wall Street profit predictions in the fourth quarter, but came up short in mobile revenue.