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Technical problems temporarily blocked some US and European users having access to their accounts and on Tuesday prevented advertisers launching or making changes to campaigns during the busy run-up to Black Friday there has been a spike in the number of members requesting a download of all the data Facebook holds on them.

The company has blamed this for delays to processing the submissions. News site Recode suggested this might indicate rising numbers of people are planning to quit Facebook's platforms campaigners have criticised it for failing to prevent a 16-year-old girl being sold for marriage in South Sudan via its platform.

Facebook did not remove the post involved until more than a fortnight after the sale began despite it being reported in the press in the interim there has been a growing backlash against a new auto-comment feature that was found to be prompting users to post comments such as "this is so sad" and "heartbreaking" and prayer-hands emojis in response to reports of a mass shooting in the US.

A Next Web editorial said: "The idea that we could adequately communicate empathy through canned messages is reprehensible" a Russian company - whose Facebook account was deleted in April as part of a purge of those suspected to be meddling in the US elections - is suing the social network, claiming it is a legitimate news outlet