Oops, what happened here? These users have been on the social platform long before Facebook was founded - how can that be?

These member requests greatly fueled a user's skepticism. Because two of the potential members for a Facebook group have been on Facebook since January 1, 1970 - long before Facebook itself existed (*Editor's note: Facebook appeared in February 2004)!

“Hi, two users wanted to join my flea market group. Normally I go by registration date and region. But I wasn't impressed here... There are two of them who have been on FB since 1970? Can you manipulate so much on FB?”

image

Has Facebook been manipulated by hackers or is someone trying to make fun?

Not a troll, not a ghost, not a hacker. The answer is as simple as it is mathematical: to put it simply, we see here the “ zero point of the computer clock ”.

The Unixtime

If a date field in IT says January 1, 1970, you can assume that something went wrong with the date assignment. If garbage somehow arrives there, it will initially say “0”. And in Unix time that is January 1st, 1970, exactly zero o'clock.

Unix time is a simple time definition developed for the Unix operating system. Before Unix version 6 (1975), the Unix clock counted in hundredths of a second, so the epoch had to be reset every year. Since Unix version 6, Unix time counts the seconds since Thursday, January 1, 1970, 00:00 UTC. This launch date is also known as The Epoch.

However, this oops doesn't just happen on Facebook, it can also happen on other websites that “The Epoch” strikes:

seventy4

(Screenshot: Display of Wetter.com on an Android smartphone)

Therefore, there is no reason to panic if you receive member requests with the date January 1st, 1970 - it is not a ghost or a hacker, just an internal error.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )