Image Source: Saudi Gazette
More than six hours after users first reported a massive outage that pulled the services offline Monday 4th October 2021, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are back online. Some of the services aren’t fully functional yet; for example, some Instagram users are still having trouble posting new content. The glitch, according to Facebook, was caused by a networking issue. Because Facebook’s servers couldn’t communicate correctly, the issues spread across the system, causing outages. The outage also disrupted many of Facebook’s internal systems, making it more difficult to diagnose and address the problem.
According to reports, the outages started about 12 p.m. ET. On Monday, Facebook employees were unable to access the company’s internal email, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. We apologize to the large community of individuals and companies who rely on us across the world, Facebook stated in a statement. We’ve been working hard to get our applications and services back up, and we’re glad to announce that they’re doing so now. Thank you for your patience. What went wrong, Facebook did not say.
Image Source: BBC
The websites and applications for Facebook’s services started responding with server problems soon before noon ET, and all three platforms stopped operating. The outages looked to be widespread, although it was unclear how many people were unable to use the applications. The outage was caused by DNS failure, according to reports, a network monitoring service owned by Cisco. DNS stands for Domain Name System, and it functions similarly to a phone book for websites. Facebook did not disclose what went wrong. Soon after noon ET, the websites and applications for Facebook’s services began to respond with server issues, and all three platforms went offline.
According to reports, the outages appeared to be widespread, however it was unclear how many users were unable to access the programs. After a more than six-hour interruption, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were restored on Monday. The glitch, according to Facebook, was caused by a networking issue. Because Facebook’s servers couldn’t communicate correctly, the issues spread across the system, causing outages. The outage also disrupted many of Facebook’s internal systems, making it more difficult to diagnose and address the problem, according to the firm. A similar outage occurred in 2019 and lasted roughly an hour. The downtime was caused by a server configuration change, according to Facebook.
