When there is a social media blackout, the most popular response is to switch to another network to vent.
Users took to Twitter on Thursday, as they did with virtually every other Facebook and Instagram outage, with the hashtag #InstagramDown rapidly becoming one of the most trending topics in the US.
According to Downdetector.com, Facebook began experiencing issues around 5:30 p.m. ET, with issues affecting Facebook itself, as well as Facebook-owned sites Messenger and Instagram, all over the world.
Many users received the message “Sorry, something went wrong,” and a message on the app under news and groups said that the pages were unavailable and that it “may be due to a technical error that we’re trying to correct.”
And the tweets on Twitter’s competitor site started flying right away.
Many users were able to use the platforms again about 20 minutes later.
In an emailed comment, a Facebook spokesperson said, “Earlier today, a configuration update caused some users to be unable to access Facebook services.” We quickly looked into the issue and resolved it. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused.”
User reports indicate Facebook is having problems since 5:31 PM EDT. https://t.co/8wgYQLKxCu RT if you're also having problems #Facebookdown
— Downdetector (@downdetector) April 8, 2021
In January, an undetermined number of users were signed out of their accounts due to a configuration error, according to Facebook.
In March 2019, Facebook experienced one of the longest outages in its history, with many users losing access for more than 12 hours.
With nearly 3 billion monthly users, Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform. According to Pew Research Center, almost three-quarters of Facebook users in the United States visit the site at least once a day.
