After the most severe outage in the history of Facebook, the social media giant has blamed a ‘database overload’ to be the reason behind the global meltdown which lasted for almost 14 hours.
The users in some areas of Europe, the US, Japan, and South America were hit the most by the problem which also affected other apps of the company, WhatsApp and Instagram.
After the California-based tech giant resumed operation, the staff has released a statement saying the disruption wasn’t a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
The last time it happened in 2008 when Facebook had 150 million users compared to more than 2.3 billion users today.
A source told NBC that Facebook database was ‘overloaded’, adding: ‘We are racing to spin up new machines as others go down. Mostly resolved… but it takes time.’
Instagram responded to the situation via a tweet.
‘We’re aware of an issue impacting people’s access to Instagram right now. We know this is frustrating, and our team is hard at work to resolve this ASAP,’ it wrote.
We’re aware of an issue impacting people's access to Instagram right now. We know this is frustrating, and our team is hard at work to resolve this ASAP.
— Instagram (@instagram) March 13, 2019
Taking to Twitter, a Facebook spokesman said: ‘We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps.
‘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.’
Due to the massive outage, social media users flocked to Twitter to share their anger as well as an assortment of hilarious jokes on the issue, using the #facebookdown hashtag.
#FacebookDown
That's exactly what I did ?? pic.twitter.com/YBZly5qayg— MAZID GABA (@aramazid) March 13, 2019
‘Pages won’t load. I’m sure they’re busy loading new algorithms to sell your data and spy on you better and more efficiently,’ one user tweeted.
‘Ya’ll, I haven’t gotten my daily dosage of dank memes and I think that’s why I’m cranky. #FacebookDown,’ user Mayra Mesina wrote.
Just realized my husband has brown eyes. #Instagramdown
— Jen Atkin Hair (@jenatkinhair) March 14, 2019
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Even renowned celebrities around the world couldn’t help panicking a little.
Former Nickelodeon star Josh Peck fired a number of jokes directed at Instagram influencers. ‘With Facebook and Instagram down, 250 models just became dental hygienists,’ he joked in one tweet.
‘With Facebook and Instagram down, every Fit Tea has filed for bankruptcy,’ Peck said in another.
Instead of JFK getting shot, kids today will rememeber where they were when instagram went down
— David Spade (@DavidSpade) March 14, 2019
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Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she was about to document a furniture shopping trip for her millions of followers on Instagram but couldn’t do it due to the outage.
‘Is Instagram still down? Bc after 2 months almost furnitureless in DC I am trying to take you all on the riveting adventure of getting: a chair,’ she tweeted.
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/Q8OvfWc2ukADVERTISEMENT — Elevator Thoughts (@Jonny_LDN) March 13, 2019
Tommy Wiseau, The Room actor, took the opportunity to get some new fans who may have stumbled upon his Twitter account during the outage.
‘Facebook is down ! Instagram is down ! Welcome to my twitter !’ he captioned a video of himself telling people to ‘have a groovy time’.
Lmaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooo I blame trump https://t.co/ARuyGqNDtG
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) March 14, 2019
Mindy Kaling joked that she hoped to win new fans.
‘Instagram and Facebook are down so here we are. Crossing my fingers this is my best performing tweet yet #instagramdown,’ she tweeted.
Bachelor star Colton Underwood lashed out on Instagram for shutting down on the day he could publicly flaunt his new relationship following the finale.
‘Yo @instagram I just went public with my girlfriend last night and I have to post a few more pictures of us to be annoying/show her off,’ he wrote, referring to his girlfriend Cassie Randolph. ‘Can you fix yourself soon?’
With Instagram down, productivity across the country has doubled.
— Jeff Dye (@JeffDye) March 14, 2019
Many users posted funny memes about the “social media crisis.”
‘God I’m so happy Instagram is still not working, I hope it stays down, finally the hot people will have to come here and learn to be funny to get attention like the rest of us,’ joked one user.
‘I ATE TWO MEALS INSTAGRAM AND I WAS NOT ABLE TO POST THEM. MY FANS ARE GOING TO THINK I AM STARVING,’ tweeted another.
me coming back onto my dead twitter account because instagram is down like… #InstagramBlackout2019 pic.twitter.com/65RwQvV7Ta
ADVERTISEMENT — dior ☾ ♡ (@GiveHimATish) March 14, 2019
‘All Instagram models realizing they have to look for new jobs since they are now unemployed,’ one user quipped.
In a hilarious post, comedian John Fugelsang joked about how he would explain the social media outage to his children in the future.
‘Son, I wasn’t alive for the Donner Party or Pearl Harbor; but I am old enough to remember when both Facebook and Instagram were down at the same time during that terrible winter of ’19,’ he tweeted.
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