Key Sentence:
- Facebook apologized after it stopped working for several hours on Monday for users around the world.
- WhatsApp and Instagram – owned by the company – also fell.
What is the problem?
In short, Facebook’s systems have stopped communicating with the broader Internet. It’s like “someone suddenly unplugged their data center and disconnected it from the Internet,” says web infrastructure company Cloudflare.
Facebook’s explanation is a little more technical.
It said that “Changes to the configuration of the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused problems that interfered with that communication.” This has a “tiered effect … because we have discontinued our service”. Zuckerberg apologizes for his six-hour hiatus from Facebook.
Why don’t people have access to Facebook?
The Internet is split into hundreds of thousands of networks. In addition, big companies like Facebook have their own more extensive networks – so-called stand-alone systems. When you need to visit Facebook (or Instagram or WhatsApp), a back-end system that allows computers to connect to their network using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a type of Internet email service.
BGP checks all available routes that data can travel and selects the best way to direct users to the website they want to visit. On Monday, Facebook suddenly stopped the information is needed for the system to work. This means that no computer has any way of connecting to Facebook or any other website.
What is the impact of the disturbance?
The failure of these key players on the Internet has had a devastating impact on individuals and businesses worldwide. The downside detector, which monitors malfunctions, said about 10.6 million problems had been reported worldwide – the highest number ever recorded.
For many, losing access to Facebook’s services is simply an inconvenience. However, this can be a severe problem for some small businesses in developing countries without other reliable means of communication to communicate with customers. Similarly, some organizations whose employees work remotely after the pandemic rely on WhatsApp to stay with their colleagues.
How did it happen?
On Monday at around 4:45 p.m., a storm of reports began that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp had failed. This initially provoked the usual jokes about how people would handle it and jokes from rivals like Twitter. But it soon became clear that the problem was more serious – with reports of chaos at Facebook’s California headquarters. However, conspiracy theories are already spreading – fake games targeted by internal Facebook users are just one of many.
How did Facebook react?
A Facebook apology, somewhat embarrassingly, was posted on rival Twitter. He says it makes them more effective, but it means that if something goes wrong, it can have a “flowing effect, like old school Christmas lights going out, everything going out.” There have been glitches on Facebook, but these are usually resolved in about an hour. Longer, more destructive solar eclipses like these highlight the problem that most global communications are concentrated in Silicon Valley.
According to some, the break could wipe out Zuckerberg’s personal fortune of as much as $6 billion (£4.4 billion), with his stock falling nearly 5%. Others estimate the company’s lost revenue could exceed $60 million. And that blow to Facebook’s reputation comes at a difficult time.