Facebook founder Zuckerberg's fan page hacked

The bogus update posted late Monday suggested that Facebook turn to its users instead of banks for money and got "liked" by more than 1,800 members of the social network before it was erased.

"A bug enabled status postings by unauthorized people on a handful of public pages," a Facebook spokesperson said in an email reply to an AFP inquiry. "The bug has been fixed."

Pictures of the hacked page could be found at technology news blog TechCrunch and other online venues.

The message, complete with typos, left on the page read:

"Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it? http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think?"

It was signed "#hackercup2011," an apparent reference to an international computer programming competition being held by Facebook.

The link directed users to a Wikipedia page about social business.

Yunus was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for helping people break out of poverty with the help of micro-loans.

(c) 2011 AFP