When Facebook and several of its subsidiaries, including Instagram and WhatsApp, went down in a massive, sustained outage on Monday, many on social media were cut off from their favorite means of communication. So, naturally, they took to a Facebook rival, Twitter.
As the hours dragged on, many traded jokes and swapped rumors about the outage, which a Facebook official said Monday afternoon was related to “networking issues.”
Here’s a look at how people on the (so far) surviving social network are reacting to the Facebook outage.
live look at instagram and facebook pic.twitter.com/tOgdSU4PWR
— New Jersey (@NJGov) October 4, 2021
Did you feel your self esteem just go up a little and your paranoia and rage go down a little? Instagram and Facebook are down baby! Enjoy the good feeling while it lasts!
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) October 4, 2021
Yes, Facebook appears to be down. Let's all hope it's permanent. pic.twitter.com/LkquM8K6w1
— Portland Press Herald (@PressHerald) October 4, 2021
Twitter users skeptical of Facebook suggested the timing, coming one day after a whistleblower appeared on “60 Minutes” to discuss her decision to publicly reveal deceptive statements and practices by the social media giant, was suspicious.
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Zuckerberg after last night's whistleblower fiasco on 60 minutes... pic.twitter.com/qdL2VRImWa
— Brent Burrows II (@BBurrowsII) October 4, 2021
Still others poked fun at Senator Richard Blumenthal’s recent gaffe in which he asked a Facebook official during a Senate hearing if she would commit to “ending Finsta.”
The last laugh pic.twitter.com/0c6JDLkmM0
— Mike Cerulli (@MikeCerulliCT) October 4, 2021
Others imagined Twitter gloating about the situation (assuming it could handle the increased traffic).
Two hours later, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook still down #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/kiyqgzBFho
— Kamrul Rahat (@imKrahat) October 4, 2021
TikTok as they watch Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp get deleted from the Internet and now Twitter is starting to crack under the pressure. pic.twitter.com/MaRq8i61Xx
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 4, 2021
But others were quick to offer a reminder that WhatsApp functions as a primary means of communication for millions, making an outage costly and dangerous.
The repercussions of WhatsApp being down in The Rest Of The World are vast and devastating. It's like the equivalent of your phone and the phones of all of your loved ones being turned off without warning. The app essentially functions as an unregulated utility.
— Aura Bogado (@aurabogado) October 4, 2021
For its part, Twitter (and other platforms) seemed aware of the increased chatter.
hello literally everyone
— Twitter (@Twitter) October 4, 2021
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! #instagramdown
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) October 4, 2021
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.
— Facebook (@Facebook) October 4, 2021
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.
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) October 4, 2021
Thanks for your patience!
Christina Prignano can be reached at christina.prignano@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.