Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp experienced a major outage
Updates: 04.10.2021 22:24
Released: 04.10.2021, 18:28
New York / Prague – The WhatsApp messaging application, the Instagram photo sharing social network and the facebook social network, experienced a major outage shortly before 5:00 pm CET today. CNBC points out that this is the worst Facebook outage since 2008, when the problem dragged on all day. At that time, however, only 80 million users use its services. In the second quarter, the world’s largest social network had 2.9 million active monthly users. Facebook states that the problem is conscious and is working to remedy it.
According to Reuters, there are error messages on the Facebook website, which relate to a DNS (Domain Name System) error, which, to put it simply, is used to display web pages – the user can “guide” them to the requested page. A similar outage at cloud company Akamai Technologies shut down several websites in July.
Security experiences monitoring the situation have indicated that the outage could have caused a system configuration error because links to Facebook servers are not available. This could be the result of internal errors, although in theory sabotage by informed persons would be possible, Reuters reported.
All three named applications fall under the Facebook company and their operation is based on the same infrastructure. Other similar applications, such as Facebook Workplace or Facebook Messenger, have stopped working.
“We are aware that other people have difficulty accessing our applications and products,” a Facebook spokesman said. “We are working to get everything back to normal as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience,” he added.
Users also reported outages on Amazon, Google, T-Mobile, Twitter and Tik Tok on DownDetector. However, it was twitter that became one of the channels through which the jokes associated with the Facebook outage circulated. Twitter welcomed the influx of virtual visitors on the network of the same name tweet “Hello, practically everyone.”
“Facebook and Instagram will mysteriously stop working for the day and the world is becoming a healthier place,” said former US secret service collaborator and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In the Czech Republic, many people have experienced problems in providing services to some operators. Vodafone apologized to clients for its treatment with the connection via twitter. “We have implemented an alternative solution, all parts of our fixed network are fully functional, despite the others who are receiving a massive outage of Facebook,” the company later informed twitter.
Facebook shares depreciated 5.5 percent around 21:30 CEST and were heading for their worst session in a year. A wider sale of technology shares and the resignation of former company employee Frances Haugen contributed to their decline. On Sunday, Facebook accused Facebook of repeatedly prioritizing profits instead of taking action against hate speech and misinformation.
