Rumours of Mark Zuckerberg's death may have been greatly exaggerated: but by his own multi-billion user website, as a glitch on Friday afternoon led Facebook to declare some users, including Zuckerberg himself, prematurely dead.

People logging in to their accounts to find that they had been “memorialised”, with a message saying (in Zuckerberg’s case): “We hope people who love Mark will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life.”

Just a day earlier, Zuckerberg had called the idea that fake news on Facebook could sway people in their voting decisions was “crazy”.

At time of writing, at least four Guardian US journalists are among those who were declared by the social media giant to have shuffled off this mortal coil.

Facebook did not respond to a request from the Guardian for clarification on exactly what went wrong, but the macabre development was probably due to a glitch in the social network’s protocol for turning a person’s page into a memorial site when they really die.

In response, hundred of dismayed users took to Twitter to complain about their premature digital deaths.

Facebook does allow users to memorialize the accounts of deceased family members or friends by submitting a formal request.

Typically they must identify the account of the person who has died, the date they passed away and proof of death, such as a link to an obituary or death certificate. “This is very helpful to the team that reviews memorialisation requests,” says Facebook.

If a request is accepted, the word “remembering” is shown next to the person’s name and the profile no longer appears in public spaces such as suggestions for People You May Know, or for birthday reminders.

Users can appoint a legacy contact while they are alive to manage their account when they die. If a user fails to do this, the profile is preserved but can’t be edited.

Guardian Service