When something goes wrong with Facebook, many users understandably suspect hackers or other bad actors are behind the problem. However, the company can cause damage with bugs and glitches all on its own. For instance, this week, a bug in Facebook’s ad platform caused some customers to get charged hundreds of thousands of dollars more for ads than they had anticipated.

In some cases, users had their entire advertising budget wiped out in a matter of minutes. And to make matters worse, these wildly expensive ads weren’t even being shown to more people. Thankfully, Facebook has said it is issuing refunds for this costly error. But some experts say this is just indicative of the company’s lack of transparency with users.

“We shouldn’t have to take action when Facebook has a bug. But for the small business who don’t have an ear at Facebook, there aren’t a lot of options,” advertising consultant Barry Holt told Gizmodo. “Meta is extremely opaque, and it always has been… All we get is a generic explanation that ‘we are aware of an issue.’ That’s better than nothing, but it’s not enough.”

Of course, Facebook should do a better job showing users how its systems work. But as long as the company is getting our money and data, it has little incentive to change.

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