Meta Platforms Inc. META -2.14%decrease; red down pointing triangle has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors over the last year whom it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards stationed at Meta facilities and were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter. …

As part of the alleged abuse of the system, Meta says that in some cases workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from outside hackers to access user accounts, the people and documents say.

The disciplinary actions are part of a lengthy internal probe led by Meta executives, according to the documents and one of the people.

[Why in the world would Meta/Facebook give security guards access to user accounts in the first place? — Ed]