Outage hits Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram users: Are we under attack, netizens ask

Social media users got a glimpse of the "apocalypse" when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services went down last night. Globally, users reported that apps owned by the California-based company were down for a long time; one of the most severe outages in Facebook’s history.

Users reported that the outage began at 16.00 GMT (9.30 pm IST) on Wednesday. Although the primary servers were online, users stated that they were not able to post anything on the social media website. The last time there was a Facebook outage of such magnitude was in 2008 when the company had 150 million users, compared to 2.3 billion monthly users today.

Even Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp servers were down, as per social media. Users were not able to refresh or post on Instagram, whereas on WhatsApp, forwarding media content failed. Facebook issued a message stating that the company is aware of the outage and is working on a fix.

We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

— Facebook (@facebook) March 13, 2019

Social media users panicked and tweeted that the website may have faced a cyber attack on its servers. The company then ensured users that there is no such attack and they need not worry.

We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack.

— Facebook (@facebook) March 13, 2019

Users even reported that they could not sign into third-party apps like Spotify, Tinder through their registered Facebook account. When they tried to log in, users would be prompted with a message that read the feature is currently available. However, this problem does not exist if users have stayed logged into the app.

People started posting about the outage on Twitter after which #FacebookDown, #InstagramDown began to trend. Some reactions are hilarious:

Are we under attack?

Instagram down

Facebook down

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WhatsApp media down

What is happening?

— Michael J. Morrison (@OfficeOfMike) March 13, 2019

Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook are down. Imagine your life without social media right now. It’s crazy how we’re attached to all of them.

— Zein Mhaidly (@ZeinMhaidly) March 13, 2019

Internet turned 30 yesterday and today almost all social media apps- Facebook, Instagram,WhatsApp are down. Internet has suddenly realised there is no social life after turning 30.

— MazelTov (@runjhunmehrotra) March 13, 2019

Nuovo claim ufficiale di #Twitter:

"The best place to check if every other social media is down" #InstagramDown #WhatsAppDown #FacebookDown #WhatsApp #Facebook #Instagram pic.twitter.com/NbSWYxRbdO

— Andrea Careddu (@acareddu) March 13, 2019

Remember the feeling of apocalypse we talked out? Here it is:

With WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram down for most of the day, what would happen if Twitter also goes down.

Complete social media blackout.

— The Kalain (@KalainH) March 14, 2019

The date is March 14th 2019. 24hrs after #facebookdown
Nobody remembers how to reach loved ones or eat food without posting updates and the global economy has collapsed.
The few Facebook users that migrated to twitter were among the lucky few to once again connect. pic.twitter.com/Q8OvfWc2uk

— Elevator Thoughts (@Jonny_LDN) March 13, 2019

literally me, having no clue about what's happening in the world cause all of my social media apps are down #WhatsAppdown #facebookdown #Instagramdowm pic.twitter.com/B3VJomMw8S

— your local bitch (@alinalcy1) March 14, 2019