A massive global outage plunged part of the world into chaos on Monday—the social media world, that is. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced hours-long disruptions. The platforms are back online now. But the situation caused folks everywhere to realize how much they rely on such services.
The outage began around 11:40 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday. More than six hours later, it still wasn’t fixed. Websites and apps often suffer outages of varying size and duration, but lengthy global disruptions are rare. Late in the day, some users reported a partial return of one service or another. But the apps remained glitchy for some time.
For hours, Facebook’s only public comment was delivered through rival social media platform Twitter. Facebook issued a tweet in which it acknowledged that “some people are having trouble accessing [the] Facebook app.”
“This is epic,” says Doug Madory, director of a network monitoring and intelligence company. The last major internet outage, which knocked many of the world’s top websites offline in June, lasted less than an hour.
Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s current chief technology officer, tweeted “sincere apologies” to everyone impacted by the outage. He blamed “networking issues” and said teams were “working as fast as possible to debug and restore” access and service.
Facebook officials say, “The root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change” and that there is “no evidence that user data was compromised.” The company is still working to understand more about the cause.
Facebook was already in the middle of a separate major crisis. Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday. She exposed the company’s awareness of harms caused by its products.
Haugen filed complaints with federal law enforcement. She says Facebook’s own research proves the company increases misinformation. It also showed that the company knew that Instagram can harm teenage girls’ mental health.
For nearly three billion users, the event shows just how much the world relies on Facebook and its other platforms to run businesses, connect with online communities, communicate with friends and family, and even order food.
Kendall Ross owns a knitwear brand in Oklahoma City. He has 32,000 followers on Instagram. Almost all of his website traffic comes directly from IG. He posted a product photo about an hour before Instagram went down. He tends to sell about two hand-knit pieces for about $300-$400 after posting a product photo. But for hours, he sold nothing.
“The outage today is frustrating financially,” Ross says. “It’s also a huge awakening that social media controls so much of my success in business.”
What a blessing that access to God isn’t controlled by an internet connection, a social media app, or even another human being! According to 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
For some people, losing access for so long can make them vulnerable to criminals taking advantage of the outage, says Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security.
“They’re more susceptible . . . because they’re so desperate to communicate,” Tobac says. During previous outages, some people have received emails promising to restore their social media accounts by clicking on a link that exposes their personal data.
As jokes about the Facebook outage flooded the internet, Twitter users chimed in. One meme suggested that the facebook.com address was for sale. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey quickly tweeted, “How much?”
(The logo for Facebook appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York’s Times Square. AP/Richard Drew)
1st Comment
Huh, that’s a little strange. Not really sure what to say about this article other than that
2nd comment!
Oh yeah, that was interesting! I'm glad I don't really on this! I mean, I have Instagram, but it's a private account, and I wouldn't have posted anything anyway. I feel bad for those people that have businesses on there, though.
3rd Comment
I agree with Amelia, I don't really know what to say
3rd Comment
I agree with Amelia, I don't really know what to say
yay !!
yay !!
this is Micah
My family aren't allowed to use social apps, such as Facebook, Insta, TikTok, and so on. So I don't really care about all this. 5TH COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
oculus
i wanted to get an ocuclus quest 2 till i figured out that you need a facebook account for that
@Samuel K
Ouch. I've seen those things, and they're nice. You could just spoof an account and never use it...
GREAT!!!!!!
Wonderful! I hope it's permanent!
Ha-Ha!
That is so funny!
Down with Facebook!
Down with Facebook!
@ Micah
Why is your family not allowed to use Facebook and such? I cannot use Facebook or anything like that because Dad says i am to young. I have to be at least 16 before he lets me have Facebook and such. I will never get TikTok though. Tik Tok is not to be trusted. You can put something on there and it will post but then you will regret it and not be able to get rid of it. Plus Tik Tok is run by China. I would not trust China for anything.
@Caleb
YES! Exactly.
13 Comment
Strange. Didn't affect me at all!
Oops...
I guess that was technically 14th comment...:)
Facebook/instagram are just
Facebook/instagram are just evil. The owner gave 199.2 MILLION to planned parenthood. They ruin peoples lives all the time and the owner is fine with that as long as he's making money. I really don't understand how those sites could be considered 'okay', especially by Christians. If you have social media, I'm not saying your a bad person for it by any means, but this is also not not just my opinion. It is a fact.
This is Micah @Lydia
Because, they can disrupt you especially TikTok, making your life into trying to be better than people and trying to gain more likes. And if you don't get enough likes than you have to change how you live.
Down with Facebook!!
Down with Facebook!!
Social Media is...
Social Media is Horrible. I agree with most that they steal your information, so I join smaller sites like
Discord,
Chess.com,
SoundCloud,
Spotify,
Lichess.org,
and the such.
~
Much Safer.
My School Summary - Current Event (I wrote this)
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp had an outage for more than six hours on Monday. Facebook’s only public comment was delivered through Twitter, which said that, “some people are having trouble accessing [the] Facebook app.” The article says that, “Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s current chief technology officer, tweeted ‘sincere apologies’ to everyone impacted by the outage. He blamed ‘networking issues’ and said teams were ‘working as fast as possible to debug and restore’ access and service.”
Facebook was already having issues after Haugen filed complaints about the company – that Facebook increases misinformation and Instagram can harm teenage girls’ mental health. The article also states a moment from Twitter, “One meme suggested that the facebook.com address was for sale. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey quickly tweeted, ‘How much?’” The sites eventually came back online, but probably, in my opinion, scarred Facebook a good bit.
I was surprised by one of the WorldTeen comments, for it said, “Facebook/Instagram are just evil. The owner gave 199.2 MILLION to planned parenthood. They ruin peoples lives all the time and the owner is fine with that as long as he's making money. I really don't understand how those sites could be considered 'okay', especially by Christians. If you have social media, I'm not saying your a bad person for it by any means, but this is also not just my opinion. It is a fact. [Hannah W...Comment #16]”
~
“Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s current chief technology officer, tweeted ‘sincere apologies’ to everyone impacted by the outage. He blamed ‘networking issues’ and said teams were ‘working as fast as possible to debug and restore’ access and service.” What is so funny about this? Maybe that he TWEETED it. Twitter is their nemesis!
20th Comment
Hmm... weird didn't effect me at all, besides I have to be old enough to buy and pay for my own phone before even I get one.
@ Hannah W I don't really see how they are EVIL, but I can totally see that it used to rip off many people, (if your not smart enough to tell the difference between things, XD ) like if people ask for your password of personal information and stuff , and I mean that its not super beneficial, like just wasting your time on them, but how all of them are evil
@Christopher
Maybe I'm missing something..... why would my comment surprise you?
@Nora
I mean that they are evil because the owners give millions of dollars made off of those sites to fund abortion (which is evil).
They censor out the majority of the true things that gets posted on it, while at the same time leaving on the disgusting and trashy pictures people post of themselves, also terrible curse words.
They plainly ruin peoples lives. I think that all of that adds up to being evil.
Again, I'm not calling you evil if your on it, just the sites themselves, and the owners. :)
this is Micah @Christopher
I also use discord, and chess.com and I think they also are safe. I know a LOT of people use Discord. It is easy and useful.
Kill and destroy Facebook!!!
Kill and destroy Facebook!!!
@Hannah W
I agree. And the fact that the owners KNOW that it hurts girl's mental health? That's ridiculous! If they know that their program is destroying the lives of girls than why do they keep using it? How many of you guys watch WORLDWatch? It's a great news show put on by WORLD news group. The other day there was a story about Instagram, and apparently they did a study that proves how dangerous social media is. But the solution is worse! They're going to make an "Instagram Kids". It's supposed to be the same except with certain parental restrictions and no adds. They're just making the problem worse.
@Christopher C
I like it!
@ Hannah W
Sorry, I did actually hear more about Facebook somewhere else, and they're pretty bad, and I didn't know about the abortion thing either, and I'm not not on Facebook anyways, so I guess I can't say much since I don't know a lot about it.
@lydia
I don't like TikTok either, mostly for the same reasons.
@lydia
I don't like TikTok either, mostly for the same reasons.
@lydia
I don't like TikTok either, mostly for the same reasons.
Sorry
Sorry!
Did you know that Mike
Did you know that Mike Schroepfer is also in the World Economic Form. Which is planning to take over Earth.
@Chrisopher C
Spotify spies on you, just so you know...
@Hesperus
XD Everything spies on you! YouTube, Amazon, Google in general, Apple, etc.
@Hesperus
I didn't realize you were responding to Christopher. (:D Sorry!
Duck Duck Go
My mom uses a different search engine called 'Duck Duck Go!' It's not affiliated with Goggle at all, and they won't take down articles and such. My mom really likes it so far. Has anyone heard of it?
@HANNAH W
Yes, my mom uses it too.
@Hannah W
Yeah, Dad uses it. Seems really good, but I have to use a kid's search engine still :).
@Caleb and @Scarlett
@Caleb- Cool!
@Scarlett- Nice! Which one do you use?
@Hannah
I think my mom uses it too
@Hannah W
My family uses DuckDuckGo.
@ Addie L
Apple doesn’t spy . Several years ago the FBI wanted Apple to make a” back way “ into the iPhone so they could track suspects Apple said no and the FBI Sued (I apologize for political terms) Apple for not letting them ,Apple actually won the lawsuit . And also if you want more proof if say like an app like Weather needs your location it only uses your approximate location .
:)
@Scarlett and Hannah, I think for some people social media is bad, but I have Instagram, and it isn't bad for me. @Michah and Christopher, I have discord too! Let me know if I can friend you or if you want to friend me, andI can put up my username and number. :) If you don't want to, that's fine! It'd just be cool. :D
@Caroline
Not everyone is harmed by using social media, but (I don't mean to be rude), it's still supporting an evil company.
@Franz R
Sooooo... Because of, what an article? you believe that Apple doesn't spy on people. (Idk where you heard/read that) Do you think it's possible that that whole happened, simply to make people believe that Apple doesn't spy on people? Huh, they could be keeping everybody's data to themselves to do whatever with, and they simply didn't want to cooperate with the FBI.
*whole thing
*whole thing
@Hesperus
I figured someone would ask that so on YouTube there is a channel (I also had other sources)called apple explained he has topics on apple’s history and Samsung so not just Apple he is very logical and I have watched almost all oof his videos and so far he is very honest he said bad things about apple too but it has been very clear that Apple is very privacy protected and even if Apple has your info say like Siri knows what you like to say then they can’t tie the information to your name
@Caroline N
Some people are able to use it responsibly, and that's good.
@Hannah W
I use Kiddle! It's based on wikipedia so I don't trust the facts completely but I use it to get around to other websites.
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