Many social media lovers were forced to take a break yesterday from Instagram and Facebook. What’s worse is that it had to happen on a weekend, when engagement on social media is supposedly at the peak. Down Detector, a site that tracks real time outages and other online issues, reported the incidence.
Many users of both social media platforms expressed their displeasure on twitter. One distressed user argued that both platforms we’re probably hacked last night. However, in a statement by a spokesman from Facebook to CNNMoney, the social media giant didn’t vividly state what caused the downtime but has assured users that the matter is been looked into. He said:
“Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Facebook services. We quickly investigated and are currently restoring service for everyone. We are sorry for an inconvenience.”
Some of the problems encountered on Facebook include: difficulty with logging in and out, liking posts, sharing posts, sharing from platforms like twitter onto Facebook page and generally navigating the platform. For Instagram, users reported problems logging in, refreshing their news feeds, posting Instagram stories and more.
Facebook is unarguably one of the largest sites in the world, where members are encouraged to connect with as many. Many users have used the networking site to track old time friends and renewed their friendships. Entrepreneurs and business owners have taken advantage of the traffic that the site pulls to promote their products or businesses thereby, increasing the possibility of generating leads to foster product sales. Some other users use the app to stay updated with the latest news and information-most major news goes viral on Facebook. And there are those who use the social networking site to show off family vacations and their latest acquired car.
The social media giant accounts for over two billion active users, making it the largest social app. Its sister service, Instagram is on its way to attain this feat as it has recently reached 700 million active users.
This downtime meant a lot for business owners who rely on the social apps for leads and addicts who can’t go a day without opening the app to post a personal story or share a trending gossip. It’s not strange to admit that the social app has its ups and down. Yet, many successful online businesses owe their success to the existence of the social media giant.
Service seems to be largely restored now but it isn’t the first time. In all, I hope it’s not another peekaboo series by the men in black.
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