Facebook and Instagram suffer most severe outage ever

Written by on March 14, 2019

Facebook has suffered the most severe outage in its history, with key services rendered unusable for users globally for much of Wednesday.

The last time Facebook had a disruption of this magnitude was in 2008, when the site had 150m users – compared with around 2.3bn monthly users today.

Facebook’s main product, its two messaging apps and image-sharing site Instagram were all affected.

The cause of the interruption has not yet been made public.

Facebook’s apps seemed to be recovering on Thursday morning, with Instagram announcing it was back.A

“We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps,” Facebook said in a statement.

“We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”

In response to rumours posted on other social networks, the company said the outages were not a result of a Distributed Denial of Service attack, known as DDoS – a type of cyber-attack that involves flooding a target service with extremely high volumes of traffic.

An NBC News broadcaster reported the cause was related to “overloaded” databases.

How widespread was the problem?

Estimates suggest the issue began around 16:00 GMT on Wednesday.

While Facebook’s main service appeared to load, users reported not being able to post.

Those on Instagram were not able to refresh feeds or post new material. Facebook Messenger’s desktop version did not load – but the mobile app appeared to allow the sending of some messages; however, users reported glitches with other kinds of content, such as images. WhatsApp, Facebook’s other messaging app, had similar problems.

third-party outage map suggested the problem was global – DownDetector monitors posts on other social networks for users mentioning a loss of service elsewhere.

The issue also affected Facebook Workplace, the service used by businesses to communicate internally.

Buenos Aires-based designer Rebecca Brooker told the BBC the interruption was having a significant impact on her firm’s work.

“Facebook for personal use is fine – but what happens when we rely on large companies such as this to provide business services?” she said.

“I’m trying to communicate with my team in New York. Facebook Workplace is our only channel for [communication] with the exception of email.”

In the UK, an NHS paediatric consultant told the BBC how staff were upset not to be kept updated on a party being held for a beloved nurse who was retiring after 20 years.

“Being a working day most consultants could not make it,” said Dr Nikhil Ganjoo. “So I represented them – but was unable to share the retirement party pics with them as it happened.”

The outage occurred against a political backdrop of legislators in the US and beyond considering whether large technology firms – not just Facebook – should be broken up.

Elizabeth Warren, who is hoping to be the Democratic candidate in the next US presidential election, told the New York Times: “We need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favour and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.”

On Wednesday’s issue, Ms Brooker added on Twitter: “Look at what happens when we let one company control everything.

“I figured this could happen eventually but it’s extremely crippling to be part of this monopoly.”

What’s the reaction been?

While Facebook and Instagram were down, many turned to Twitter to make jokes about the outage.

The hashtags #FacebookDown and #InstagramDown were used more than 150,000 times.

Some Twitter users who work in “Facebook-centric” jobs, expressed their panic and distress at being unable to use the platform.Skip Twitter post by @stephbaiocchi

Embedded video

Stephanie Baiocchi@stephbaiocchi

me attempting to do my very facebook-centric job when facebook is down… #facebookdown9469:30 PM – Mar 13, 2019276 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacyReport

End of Twitter post by @stephbaiocchi

Twitter post by @BBCBrasil: Sítio de Atibaia  as provas contra Lula e o que diz a defesa

Many shared jokes about the social media outage leading to the collapse of society, as “nobody remembers how to reach loved ones or eat food without posting updates”.Skip Twitter post by @Jonny_LDNView image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Elevator Thoughts@Jonny_LDN

The date is March 14th 2019. 24hrs after #facebookdown
Nobody remembers how to reach loved ones or eat food without posting updates and the global economy has collapsed.
The few Facebook users that migrated to twitter were among the lucky few to once again connect.1,4738:19 PM – Mar 13, 2019760 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacyReport

End of Twitter post by @Jonny_LDN

Others have shared a version of the “distracted boyfriend” meme, referencing people turning to Twitter in their hour of need.Skip Twitter post by @ComedyKezView image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

KezComedy@ComedyKez

Facebook and instagram users be like:#FacebookDown #Instagramdown4,2269:05 PM – Mar 13, 20191,733 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacyReport

End of Twitter post by @ComedyKez

Some users reflected on how the outage had exposed their reliance on the social media networks.

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Poking fun at the popularity of cat content on social media, one user shared their concern for all the cats unable to upload videos.Skip Twitter post by @jeff20888246View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Jeff Day@jeff20888246

If Facebook is down that means all the cats are not being used in videos….
God help us all. #FacebookDown1038:37 PM – Mar 13, 2019 · Edmonton, Alberta27 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacyReport

End of Twitter post by @jeff20888246

Some joked that the lack of access to Facebook would deprive them of validation.Skip Twitter post by @Piefurrier

Embedded video

Piefur@Piefurrier

With #FacebookDown where do I go to support my crushing narcissism?
There’s no one to enjoy and appreciate my photos!
Who’ll validate my life!?!1678:38 PM – Mar 13, 201946 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacyReport

End of Twitter post by @Piefurrier


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