Here's a look at the chaos that ensued when Facebook went down.

Facebook's services were unavailable on October 4, 2021.

most-interesting-and-absurd-reactions-to-facebook-being-down.jpg

<p>Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp faced a global outage on October 4, 2021, and the internet was rife with user comments and memes about the incident. The timing of the incident was considered suspicious after a <a class="underline border-color-ie" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/04/facebook-whistleblower-reveals-identity-says-company-chooses-profits-over-safety/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">whistleblower appeared in a public interview</a>&nbsp;alleging that the company chooses 'profits over safety.'&nbsp;</p>
<p>A Reddit user commented that the company was cleaning up its servers in anticipation of law enforcement agencies taking action after the whistleblower complaints were published as the <a class="underline border-color-ie" href="https://interestingengineering.com/culture/lawsuit-alleges-facebook-paid-49-billion-to-protect-zuckerberg" rel="dofollow" target="_blank" data-id="embedded internal links" data-type="link" data-url="https://interestingengineering.com/culture/lawsuit-alleges-facebook-paid-49-billion-to-protect-zuckerberg">Facebook Files</a>.</p>
<p><span class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-facebook"><iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/technews/comments/q18z0w/facebook_instagram_and_whatsapp_all_go_down_in_a/hfdhbmh/?depth=1&amp;showmore=false&amp;embed=true&amp;showmedia=false" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" class="embed-responsive-item"></iframe></span></p>
<p>But then another user pointed out that Facebook employees themselves were locked out of the systems, something <a class="underline border-color-ie" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2021/10/04/networking-traffic/outage/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the company also confirmed</a> in a public post later, making it difficult to diagnose the issue. Eventually, it took the company a total of five hours to reset the configuration changes during which founder-owner Mark Zuckerberg is <a class="underline border-color-ie" href="https://interestingengineering.com/culture/zuckerberg-has-lost-6-billion-in-hours-amid-the-great-facebook-crash" rel="dofollow" target="_blank" data-id="embedded internal links" data-type="link" data-url="https://interestingengineering.com/culture/zuckerberg-has-lost-6-billion-in-hours-amid-the-great-facebook-crash">believed to have lost $6 billion</a>, sending him down on the world's richest people list.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Social media users, however, had a field day, dishing out jokes and memes about the outage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A Reddit user sarcastically complained about the outage while also pointing towards the endless quizzes people usually spend time on while on the platform.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-facebook"><iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/technews/comments/q18z0w/facebook_instagram_and_whatsapp_all_go_down_in_a/hfdk26p/?depth=1&amp;showmore=false&amp;embed=true&amp;showmedia=false" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" class="embed-responsive-item"></iframe></span></p>
<p>Taking a shot at the scale of the problem, given that Facebook owns all three services, a user tweeted:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Mark trying to fix Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook at the same time. <a href="https://t.co/n0WZSwLYon" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/n0WZSwLYon</a></p>
&mdash; Mazi Gburugburu Son (@Maziify07) <a href="https://twitter.com/Maziify07/status/1445088607295975434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>A Twitter user, quite rightfully, represented user behavior in this tweet.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">ppl coming to Twitter from whatsapp instagram and facebook to check if everyone is facing the same issue <a href="https://t.co/oIanBwKl3E" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/oIanBwKl3E</a></p>
&mdash; ۪ yen (@j4yotwo) <a href="https://twitter.com/j4yotwo/status/1445057863714414593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Interestingly, Facebook, too, had to head to Twitter to communicate with its users.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">We&rsquo;re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We&rsquo;re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.</p>
&mdash; Facebook (@Facebook) <a href="https://twitter.com/Facebook/status/1445061804636479493?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Twitter was definitely pleased by this golden moment where millions of internet social media users relied on its services, tweeting out "<a class="underline border-color-ie" href="https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1445078208190291973?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1445078208190291973%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fnews%2Ffacebook-instagram-and-whatsapp-are-down-funniest-memes-and-jokes%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hello literally everyone</a>" and Guinness World Records chiming in,</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Record for most people on twitter at once has probably been smashed by now ?</p>
&mdash; #GWR2022 OUT NOW (@GWR) <a href="https://twitter.com/GWR/status/1445098697935794177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Even the World Health Organization jumped in to send a social message.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InstagramDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#InstagramDown</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FacebookDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#FacebookDown</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhatsAppDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#WhatsAppDown</a> but NEVER let your mask down.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WearAMask?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#WearAMask</a>. Properly.<a href="https://t.co/3ARvucECfg" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/3ARvucECfg</a></p>
&mdash; World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) <a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1445095958128246788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Twitter users spared a thought for users who rely heavily on Facebook's offerings for their communication needs.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook<br>down.<br>People who don&rsquo;t have Snapchat or Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/instagramdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#instagramdown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/facebookdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#facebookdown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhatsApp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#WhatsApp</a> <a href="https://t.co/3J56whmHcT" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/3J56whmHcT</a></p>
&mdash; Letitia Wright ➐ (@LetitiaaWright) <a href="https://twitter.com/LetitiaaWright/status/1445158292746014722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Many users had a choice to keep their phones away and take a break from social media. But as this meme shows, we know what they preferred instead.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">When Instagram and Facebook go down <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InternetShutDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#InternetShutDown</a> <a href="https://t.co/XOk2NJlFUb" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/XOk2NJlFUb</a></p>
&mdash; Because Family (@pocketdors) <a href="https://twitter.com/pocketdors/status/1445133987920351238?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>For those who were desperate for a dose of daily feed, this short video and the accompanying tweet probably best explains their state when they could log into Twitter.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Facebook: Down<br>Instagram: Down<br>Whatsapp: Down<br><br>Logging into Twitter like: ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/whatsappdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#whatsappdown</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/instagramdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#instagramdown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/facebookdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">#facebookdown</a> <a href="https://t.co/5epOeus5OI" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/5epOeus5OI</a></p>
&mdash; Benji (@Cule_Ben) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cule_Ben/status/1445099345146261509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>This tweet pretty much represents the mood at the company during the outage.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Facebook and Instagram down <a href="https://t.co/T22UiaFqZX" class="underline border-color-ie" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/T22UiaFqZX</a></p>
&mdash; Daniel Newma&eta; (@DanielNewman) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielNewman/status/1445094625065242647?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>But it was not just the internet that was obsessed with the outage. This tweet from author Stephen King probably sums up the times we live in.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Facebook outage the #1 story on the nightly news (ABC). This is the very definition of addiction.</p>
&mdash; Stephen King (@StephenKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1445157961085722625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>

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Most Interesting and Absurd Reactions to Facebook Being Down

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