WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook not working for many users: Details here
What's the story
In a major surprise, Facebook's entire family of apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram, appears to have gone down for some users. Since Wednesday night, several people from different parts of the world have reported issues regarding accessing Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, The Verge reported. The social network has acknowledged the outages, but the issue still appears unresolved. Here are the details.
Issue
Services not working properly
Over the last night, multiple reports related to problems with the Facebook app, Facebook.com, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp started coming in. Some said they couldn't post on the Facebook app, while others reported problems in sending messages on Messenger or WhatsApp. Notably, the mobile version of Messenger worked partially, but the desktop avatar failed to load at all.
Information
Some saw message for 'required maintenance'
Some Facebook users saw the message that service was down for 'required maintenance'. Plus, many even reported problems while using Facebook login for third-party services like Spotify.
Problems detailed
Instagram Stories won't load, login issues
As for Instagram, the problems are far worse than those on WhatsApp and Facebook. While some users, including myself, couldn't even log into their accounts, others claimed that their Instagram Stories, posts failed to load. Some people even claimed that the button accessing DMs or sharing a new photo didn't work as expected. Facebook's ad section and Oculus VR are also reportedly experiencing issues.
Information
Areas that appear affected
While social media reports suggest several people in India have encountered issues on all three platforms, DownDetector's data indicates the outages have also been reported in parts of the US, the UK, Australia, and the Philippines.
Twitter Post
Even American rapper Soulja Boy encountered the issue
Oh wow the entire Facebook is down? That’s it I’m going to make a new social media network right now! This is unacceptable y’all have too much money for this smh 🤦🏾♂️
— Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) March 13, 2019
Facebook's response
Facebook says 'no DDoS attack'
As users started complaining about outages, Facebook took to Twitter to acknowledge the issue and note that it is working to resolve the problems as soon as possible. "We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm the issue is not related to a DDoS attack," a spokesperson for the company told The Guardian.
Twitter Post
Here's the statement from Facebook
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