Everything About the Facebook Apps Outage That is Reported by Over 10 Million Users

By
Shawn Ambrose
-

For around six hours this morning, the world was in crisis.

Some Singaporeans are calling it the greatest ever calamity to hit humankind since the circuit breaker, others are too busy recovering from the shock to speak about it.

Reader: Oh my… What happened? Did someone start a war? Has a new virus emerged?

Worse, dear reader. WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram stopped working. 

Reader: *faints*

Yes, that’s why you couldn’t send that good morning text to your bae when you woke up early this morning.

So, what happened? Why did it happen? And who did it happen to?

Here’s everything you need to know about the Facebooks apps outage.

Largest Outage Ever

At around 12am Singapore time, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram went dark. 

By that I don’t mean that they turned to crime, but that they were inaccessible to users for no apparent reason.

The outage lasted nearly six hours, with 10.6 million people reported having issue with the apps.

While many Singaporeans may have been asleep during the outage, much of the world was awake, and greatly affected by the outage.

With so many people forced to stay at home due to COVID-19 restrictions nowadays, social media has become an essential mode of communication.

The outage has shown just how dependent we are on these apps to talk to one another, especially in some countries like Myanmmar, where Facebook is reportedly synonymous with the Internet.

Facebook’s Response

Facebook later responded to users complaints about the outage in a tweet, but didn’t say what the issue was.

“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us,” it said.

It also retweeted a tweet from its chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, who said the company is experiencing “network issues”.

What’s the Cause?

Fortunately, all Facebook apps are working again, as I can finally return to watching cute cat videos on Facebook instead of working.

As for what caused the outage, no one knows.

While some netizens have speculated that Facebook was hacked, members of Facebook’s security team said this was unlikely, as a hack wouldn’t normally affect several apps at once.

Security experts believe there was an issue with Facebook’s server computers, which prevented people from connecting to their apps.

Interestingly, because Facebook’s internal systems stopped working as well, some Facebook employees in the US couldn’t enter their offices because their digital badges didn’t work.

The last time Facebook had a significant outage was in 2019, when a technical error affected its sites for 24 hours.

But with this being its largest and most extensive outage, users surely won’t be satisfied until they get an explanation.

However, someone is happy.

Read Also:

Featured Image: Wachiwit / Shutterstock.com

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

Read Also:

Advertisements
 
Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]