NEWS
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp services down again
Facebook-owned services, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook itself, are currently down, leaving some three billion online users frustrated and unable to connect all over the world.
The social tools including Facebook’s own Messenger service were first reported as not being available from 04:25pm on Monday.
Users visiting the social platforms owned by Silicon Valley guru Mark Zuckerberg are confronted with error messages.
On Twitter, @WhatsApp wrote, “We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment.
“We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.
“Thanks for your patience!”
@Facebook tweeted, “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
Also, @InstagramComms wrote on Twitter, “Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it! #instagramdown.”
The Facebook-owned apps, which have some three billion users worldwide, report occasional outages in March 2021 and July 2020, which often spark an array of comments on other social platforms.
Since the suspension of microblogging site Twitter by the Federal Government of Nigeria in June 2021, Nigerians have relied heavily on Facebook-owned platforms for social interactions while a few others continue to tweet, circumventing the ban using Virtual Private Networks.
Nigeria had about 33 million active social media users as of January 2021. WhatsApp is the most popular platform used in the country, with over 90 million users, according to Statista.
About 61.4 per cent of Nigerian social media users use Twitter, 86.2 per cent use Facebook, 81.6 per cent use YouTube, 73.1 per cent use Instagram, and 67.2 per cent use Facebook Messenger.
Though no official reason for the problem was given, online network experts speculated it may involve an error with DNS, or the domain name system, for Facebook sites.
DNS is often compared to an address book or phone book for the internet, pointing web browsers to the computer system which serves the website they are looking for.
Previous issues with DNS led to widespread outages of several major sites earlier this year.
In one of those instances, it emerged that the blackout was caused by a single customer of a widely-used service who changed their settings, triggering a software bug affecting a huge number of websites.
It is rare for such problems to affect a single tech giant such as Facebook, or for the issue to remain unfixed for a long time.
Several other tech companies, including Reddit and Twitter, have poked fun at the social media giant’s predicament – prompting responses from the affected apps.
