The flipside of living in the information age is that people will try to control information, which is tough, and makes them look bad (and anachronistic) when they fail. Information is a weapon to them, and can only harm. Not only that, but today's PR and legal people (not the most internet-savvy by and large) were trained on the basis of press releases and other controlled-source information dissemination techniques.
This error points to who FB wants to be (old-school bureaucracy where stupidity is swept under the rug), rather than what it has the potential to be (e.g. open). This is how they dig in for the long haul, by making themselves look as clueless as the big boys, rather than as smart as the little guys.