The main Facebook site, Instagram and WhatsApp are all down according to tracking site Downdetector.com. Facebook’s main apps run on shared infrastructure so this kind of downtime is not unexpected but Facebook says it is aware and on top of the situation. The took to rival Twitter to say ““We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment,” the messaging platform’s official Twitter handle said. “We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.”
The cause of the downtime cannot be ascertained at this time but we believe that as time goes on, we will find out more and we will share more details afterwards.
This is not the first time that Facebook would be experiencing this kind of downtime. This is likely their third downtime this year at least from our own counting. Downtimes like this can be a switch issue or even a more serious problem like A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) which can take down a big site even form hours.
Whatever the case, we expect service to return soon and let me add that it’s not uncommon for sites to experience a downtime from time to time. But for a company the size of Facebook, three times in a year may be too much.
Facebook and other tech giants have in the past accused state actors from Russia, China and North Korea of hacking their systems. They have al denied it.
The United States President Joe Biden is in the process of bringing together 30 nations to tackle cybersecurity issues as the West continually accuses Russia and China of breaching the systems of their companies to either steal secrets or simply embarrass them.
Another thing that can happen if this is in fact a security breach is that, user account details could have been stolen and they are required to then ask you to update your details by changing passwords or setting up two- factor authentication, If you do in fact see such a message, please don’t overlook it.