Global Social Media Blackout Leaves Users Frustrated

NT Bureau

DOHA: The world was rocked by a widespread outage of three of the most prominent social media platforms: WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

Millions of users across the globe found themselves unable to access their favourite apps for more than an hour, leading to widespread frustration and confusion.

The application outage lasted several hours on Wednesday evening across various regions worldwide, fluctuating between online and offline statuses multiple times before ultimately crashing again at 9:40 pm Doha Time.

On WhatsApp, users were unable to send or receive messages, leading to concerns about communication breakdowns. Even Instagram users were affected, as they were unable to access their feeds or post new content.

The outage sparked a wave of reactions on X with the #Whatsappisdown, and was flooded with memes and jokes. The outage appears to have impacted Meta’s products around the world, with over 24,000 reports logged for WhatsApp and Instagram which has registered over 5000 reports on Downdetector.
As the outage continued, users anxiously awaited updates from the affected companies.

The outage serves as a stark reminder of society’s reliance on social media platforms for communication, entertainment, and commerce, raising questions about their resilience and security in an increasingly connected world.