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Facebook Thought Pittsburghers Were In Philly This Morning

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Many Pittsburgh residents saw a "Welcome to Philadelphia" post in their notification this morning. It's not clear what happened to the social media giant's geolocator technology.

Pittsburghers woke up this morning to find they had unknowingly been transported to Philadelphia, according to their Facebook accounts.

Facebook released a statement saying:  “Earlier today, a bug caused some people in Pittsburgh to get prompts related to Philadelphia. We've fixed the issue.”

The bug caused the site's location software to think Yinzers were visiting the City of Brotherly Love.

The two cities have engaged in a turnpike rivalry for years, but haven’t recently played each other in any sports. They’re both vying to become the nextAmazon headquarters anddepending on who you ask, they both have a strong chance.  

Facebook determines the location of a user if that person has enabled the service on their mobile device or computer. In March, the social media giant temporarily allowed Facebook Messenger live location sharing, which mapped where users were in real time for an hour. However, this morning’s Philadelphia check-ins didn’t appear to be related to the messenger app. 

Katie Blackley is a digital editor/producer for 90.5 WESA and 91.3 WYEP, where she writes, edits and generates both web and on-air content for features and daily broadcast. She's the producer and host of our Good Question! series and podcast. She also covers history and the LGBTQ community. kblackley@wesa.fm