What caused the mega-blackout: WhatsApp and Facebook paralyzed by incorrect settings

Latest Update: Following almost seven hours of total failure at WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, the social networks are up and running again. Only a few disruptions are still occurring. The company said a configuration error with a “domino effect” was the cause of the blackout.

End of the mega-blackout

At about midnight, users from all over the world reported that WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram were finally working again. Following the disruption, which lasted almost seven hours, the social networks are once again accessible. Occasional disruptions still occur, but the parent company Facebook reports that the services are all up and running again.

Facebook apologizes

Later in the night, the group made a statement about the cause of the complete outage: “We would like to clarify that we believe the main cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change.” According to the statement, the configuration of the crucial routers that regulate data traffic between the company’s data centers was changed. An error occurred in the process, and the data traffic was terminated. As a result, the company’s various services stopped working. According to Facebook, however, it has no indication that user data was affected in any way. Facebook proclaims in the statement, “Our services are now back online and we are actively working to bring them fully back into regular service.”

The statement concludes, “People and businesses around the world depend on us to stay connected. We understand the impact outages like this have on people’s lives, and that it is our responsibility to keep users informed about disruptions to our platforms. We apologize to everyone who was affected and we’re working to better understand what happened today so we can move forward with making our infrastructure even more resilient.”

We’re coming back online! Thank you all for your patience and we sincerely apologize to everyone affected by the outage. https://t.co/0ivNTHJ9wd
— Facebook (@facebook) October 4, 2021

Well, it is a few hours now that WhatsApp down is trending on Twitter and who are currently using WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram are most likely struggling with problems. Thousands of users are reporting disruptions in sending messages, in the server connection, and in loading feeds and stories.

When using Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram, there are huge problems at the moment. This is reported by many websites. According to the reports, more than 150,000 error messages were received at times for the Whatsapp messenger service alone. Although the number has since been reduced, the technical disruptions continue.

In particular, users are reporting problems with the server connection, sending messages or using the app itself. Similar difficulties are being experienced when using the Facebook app. Among other things, there is talk of connection problems here as well. On Instagram, there are problems with the feed, the app and loading Stories.

Internet providers are also affected by the disruption

But it is not only the social networks that are affected by the massive disruptions. Internet providers also appear among the list of troubled platforms according to reports.

For example, Vodafone users are reporting problems with mobile Internet, but also with fixed-network cable and fixed-network DSL in Germany. The situation is no better at Deutsche Telekom: There are also difficulties with fixed-network Internet there, according to “allestörungen.de,” some users even register a “total blackout.” And O2 users are also registering disruptions with mobile and fixed-network Internet.

Problems worldwide – Facebook is working on a solution

The problem is reportedly affecting not only users in Germany, but also people in other parts of Europe, the U.S., Australia and Asia. According to a report in the “Times of India,” the “Down Detector” portal, has seen corresponding reports of disruptions in Syria, Belgium, Thailand, India, Romania, Turkey, Norway, Brazil, Iran, Slovenia, Hong Kong and Bali.

It seems that even Twitter is currently unavailable for some Swiss people. A Facebook spokesperson already announced that they are aware of the problem and are working on a solution.

Also Read:

IT experts assume DNS problem

Some web experts believe that there was a problem with the DNS service. This service ensures, among other things, that website names typed in with letters are translated into IP addresses so that they can be accessed.

Two anonymous IT security experts from Facebook told the New York Times that a cyberattack is unlikely to have triggered the problems. This is because the technology behind the company’s individual apps is too different to take them all offline at the same time with a cyberattack.

However, DNS disruptions happen from time to time. For example, one of them in July resulted in numerous websites being temporarily unavailable. At the time, it was caused by problems at the web service provider Akamai. Centralization of the network infrastructure at large providers means that a failure at one company can take many services and websites offline at the same time.

In early June, many websites around the world were also unavailable for around an hour after a disruption at the cloud service Fastly. Back then, the British government’s website, the Reddit platform and the news portals of the Guardian, the New York Times, the Financial Times and the French newspaper Le Monde were among those affected.

Twitter users take social media failures with humor

On Twitter, meanwhile, the hashtags #whatsappdown and #facebookdown are trending. If you read through the numerous tweets written under the hashtag, you will see that most users are taking the massive social media disruption with humor.

Is WhatsApp down in your region too? Are you experiencing troubles using other Facebook services and apps? Let us know in the comments section below.