The Conversation (0)
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all went down yesterday – and the memes rolled in on Twitter.
The three major apps, all owned by Facebook, completely stopped working shortly after 5pm. Social media users were faced with error pages and unresponsive feeds. W
Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone took to Twitter to apologise for the inconvenience. He said: “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,”
“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
The same statement was posted shortly after on the official Facebook Twitter page.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Instagram followed suit and shared a similar update.
“Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it!”
WhatsApp also took to Twitter to update frustrated users: “We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible,” it said.
“Thanks for your patience!”
Naturally, social media users turned to the one platform that was still functioning – and companies wanted in on the action.
“hello literally everyone”, the official Twitter account tweeted, which prompted McDonald’s, WhatsApp, Instagram, OnlyFans and Reddit to join the conversation and make light of the social media meltdown.
hello literally everyone— Twitter (@Twitter) 1633368467
@McDonalds 59.6 million nuggets for my friends— Twitter (@Twitter) 1633370636
@Twitter 👋 hello!— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) 1633368688
@Twitter Hi and happy Monday 😵💫— Instagram (@Instagram) 1633370081
@Twitter Hey there 👋— OnlyFans (@OnlyFans) 1633371588
And of course, feeds were filled with memes.
Me coming to Twitter to check that what happened to WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook 😆😂 #serverdown https://t.co/U3gQCOdHUo— Karthik DHFM 🔔 (@Karthik DHFM 🔔) 1633370469
Twitter right now as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook crash #instagramdown https://t.co/bbNI6deXZV— CoffeeLovesMe (@CoffeeLovesMe) 1633370380
BREAKING: Paparazzi have spotted twitter attending the funeral for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. #serverdown https://t.co/u9OgAoF7tg— Hassan (@Hassan) 1633370229
Player Facebook - Eliminated Player Instagram - Eliminated Player Whatsapp - Eliminated Only Twitter, Tiktok & Te… https://t.co/tAdrvOrfuj— This is Big Sister (@This is Big Sister) 1633370220
Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp having a worldwide outage Twitter: https://t.co/FYwYVzqaKV— hassan (@hassan) 1633370458
Who's new here from Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. Let's follow eachother 😁 https://t.co/LrKxYYuSXk— Andile... 🦋 (@Andile... 🦋) 1633370198
Instagram and Facebook and WhatsApp are down Let's meet right here if Twitter goes down too https://t.co/mqEZtcVDuv— RYE HM - ALM (@RYE HM - ALM) 1633370543
Me apologize to my wifi when WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook goes down and realise that's not wifj fault😆😂 https://t.co/jbceHfqORU— Karthik DHFM 🔔 (@Karthik DHFM 🔔) 1633370636
Instagram down. Facebook down. WhatsApp down. Twitter right now: https://t.co/0jwn7bf78K— Janet 🦋 (@Janet 🦋) 1633370805
Me sending text messages to my homies after WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are down https://t.co/RsmXaQr3G7— SwatKat💃 (@SwatKat💃) 1633370656
“Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. How easily those three have gone down is nothing short of a disgrace. They've embar… https://t.co/WbwN6TePyb— Jonny Sharples (@Jonny Sharples) 1633372903
“New job at Facebook going well” says Gavin Williamson.— Have I Got News For You (@Have I Got News For You) 1633382047
Fixed it. Sorry. You won’t believe what worked. #facebookdown— chris o'dowd (@chris o'dowd) 1633391628
God help us if there’s a photogenic sunset tonight.— Bess Kalb (@Bess Kalb) 1633378334
wow they move fast https://t.co/FmsPJURgEp— Keith Edwards (@Keith Edwards) 1633372398
Channel 4, E4 and Channel 5 are having a glass of rose, cackling.— Scott Bryan (@Scott Bryan) 1633379688
Credit: @Matt2h https://t.co/DVh5N5jWL2— SimpsonsQOTD (@SimpsonsQOTD) 1633379334
Maybe MySpace was the best social media platform after all?
Just joined MySpace in case Twitter goes down, too https://t.co/fCUMcAQBdz— Trung Phan 🇨🇦 (@Trung Phan 🇨🇦) 1633382298
He who laughs last, laughs longest @myspacetom https://t.co/C6uzpWV9sk— amar singh (@amar singh) 1633373901
Some folks were even reminiscing about Ceefax.
This is like when Ceefax went down in ‘91 and we all went over to Teletext for 36 hours— Peter Bradshaw (@Peter Bradshaw) 1633385880
Back to old reliable https://t.co/IWyN0RclUZ— Parker (@Parker) 1633382118
It was a bad day for people who get all their information from Facebook.
Let's keep Facebook down until we reach herd immunity— Katie Rife (@Katie Rife) 1633367561
Facebook and Instagram go mysteriously offline and, for one shining day, the world becomes a healthier place. #facebookdown— Edward Snowden (@Edward Snowden) 1633370345
Facebook's down! Quick, let's have some elections!— Canongate (@Canongate) 1633363544
Even Netflix was trolling.
When Instagram & Facebook are down. https://t.co/mVFlVOOCOC— Netflix (@Netflix) 1633364402
Eventually, all the websites were restored and all was well in the world again.
The widespread disruption was blamed on a “faulty configuration change”, with Facebook saying in a statement: “Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication.
“This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”
Normal service resumed around 11 pm GMT but the memes are going to live on for a little while longer.
In a leaked transcript published in The Verge in 2019, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg suggested that such outrages are a “big deal”, as problems can lead people to use competitor platforms instead. It also noted that it could take “months” to win back trust and get people back on Facebook’s platforms.