Some Facebook users logged onto the social network Friday afternoon to learn that they were no longer among the ranks of the living.
A spokesman for the social network said that for a short period Friday, a message meant for memorialized profiles was posted to accounts of living people.
"We hope people who love (user's name) will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate (his or her) life," the message said.
Among the affected users was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
It's not clear what is causing the message to display, but several users were quick to make light of the macabre mistake on social media.
Facebook said that it fixed the error quickly, and pages were displaying normally again Friday evening.
"We are very sorry that this happened and we worked as quickly as possible to fix it," the spokesman said.