

Facebook’s internal communications platform, Workplace, was also taken out, leaving many unable to do their jobs.

Those tools included security systems, an internal calendar and scheduling tools, the memo said.Įmployees said they had trouble making calls from work-issued cellphones and receiving emails from people outside the company. The company’s global security team “was notified of a system outage affecting all Facebook internal systems and tools,” according to an internal memo sent to employees and shared with The New York Times. Inside Facebook, workers also scrambled because their internal systems stopped functioning. “Everything is down, my whole business is down,” he said.ĭouglas Veney, a gamer in Cleveland who goes by GoodGameBro and who is paid by viewers and subscribers on Facebook Gaming, said, “It’s hard when your primary platform for income for a lot of people goes down.” He called the situation “scary.” Samir Munir, who owns a food-delivery service in Delhi, said he was unable to reach clients or fulfill orders because he runs the business through his Facebook page and takes orders via WhatsApp. “It may not sound like a lot to others, but missing out on four or five hours of sales could be the difference between paying the electricity bill or rent for the month.” “With Facebook being down we’re losing thousands in sales,” said Mark Donnelly, a start-up founder in Ireland who runs HUH Clothing, a fashion brand focused on mental health that uses Facebook and Instagram to reach customers. The hashtag #facebookdown also started trending. When the outage began on Monday morning, Facebook and Instagram users quickly turned to Twitter to lament and poke fun at their inability to use the apps. “The abruptness of today’s outage highlights the staggering level of precarity that structures our increasingly digitally mediated work economy.” “Today’s outage brought our reliance on Facebook - and its properties like WhatsApp and Instagram - into sharp relief,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor of communications at Cornell University.

Facebook has built itself into a linchpin platform with messaging, livestreaming, virtual reality and many other digital services. The outage lasted over five hours, before some apps slowly flickered back to life, though the company cautioned the services would take time to stabilize.Įven so, the impact was far-reaching and severe. Within minutes, Facebook had disappeared from the internet. SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook and its family of apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, were inaccessible for hours on Monday, taking out a vital communications platform used by billions and showcasing just how dependent the world has become on a company that is under intense scrutiny.įacebook’s apps - which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus - began displaying error messages around 11:40 a.m.
