Meta, the tech behemoth behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been hit by a massive technical meltdown, leaving thousands of users across the globe in a state of digital purgatory.
The outages, which began around 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, have been reported by a staggering number of users worldwide. According to DownDetector, a website that monitors service disruptions, approximately 12,000 incidents were reported by U.S. users alone. The situation was no better abroad, with over 20,000 users in India, 46,000 in the United Kingdom, and 42,000 in Brazil expressing their frustration.
As news of the outage spread, social media users took to X, (formerly Twitter) to voice their anger and dismay and, in some cases, their amusement. “Everyone is running to Twitter X as in an earthquake when #WhatsApp goes down!” quipped one user. “People rushing to Twitter X if #WhatsApp is down,” said another.
While Meta’s platforms have experienced outages in the past, this particular incident has sent shockwaves through the digital landscape, leaving users adrift in a sea of uncertainty and boredom.
While Facebook and Instagram remained silent, WhatsApp released a statement acknowledging the issues and promising to work “on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible.”
We know some people are experiencing issues right now, we're working on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) April 3, 2024
The Meta meltdown comes on the heels of a significant workforce reduction announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2022. In a letter to employees, Zuckerberg stated that the company was “reducing the size of our team by about 13% and letting more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.” He also expressed confidence that Meta would “come out of this downturn stronger and more resilient than ever.”
Till then, users will have to find alternative means of sharing their daily musings, viral memes, and carefully curated brunch photos – perhaps by reverting to the ancient art of face-to-face communication or, even more unthinkable, picking up a book.
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In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
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