Social media users rejoice about break from ‘toxic’ platforms during major outage
‘I hope it stays down,’ one person tweeted
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are down, with social media users rejoicing over the brief break from the “toxic” platforms.
On Monday, the apps, which are all owned by Facebook, began to experience problems around 12pm ET, with Facebook issuing a statement to Twitter acknowledging the issues.
“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologise for any inconvenience,” the platform said.
However, for many users, the outage offered an opportunity to joke, on Twitter, about the downsides of the social media platforms.
“Facebook is down, and the world already seems less toxic… [good morning] fam!” one person tweeted.
Another said: “I wish I could take credit for @Facebook being down, but it’s more likely someone hit a button on accident. The world might be less toxic for these quiet moments.”
The outage comes shortly after Facebook denied a report from the Wall Street Journal that alleged the platform has a harmful impact on body image among teenage girls, with Pratiti Raychoudhury, the vice president of head of research at Facebook calling the findings “not accurate”.
The crash also comes after former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, revealed a series of revelations about the social media platform during an appearance on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, with the whistleblower alleging that the company repeatedly prioritised “growth over safety”.
Others expressed feelings of “peace” as a result of the outage, with someone else writing on Twitter: “So much peace with Facebook, IG, and WhatsApp down. Soooo happy to be detached .”
In addition to the mostly positive responses from users to the crash, others took the opportunity to declare Twitter the best platform, with one person writing: “Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook are down. I believe Twitter can save the world.”
“Can we all just agree that Twitter is king of social media?” someone else asked.
While none of the apps offered an explanation for the outage, Instagram urged users to “bear with us,” with a statement from the app reading: “Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it!
WhatsApp also assured users it is working to correct the issue in a statement shared to Twitter.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments