The worst drop in the history of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was due to “a change in server settings”.
On March 13, 2019, many users had a stark reminder that three of the most used services in the world are owned and operated by a single organization. Yes, that day we saw how a massive drop left millions of users around the world without being able to access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. But what happened?
It was almost 12 hours without service on Facebook platforms, but the problem was not resolved until after 15 hours. During this time, there was no information or details, while rumors pointed to a DDoS attack, so Mark Zuckerberg’s company had to go out and dismiss this theory almost immediately.
After almost 24 hours after the crash, Facebook finally came out (on Twitter) and explained that the failure was due to a “server configuration change”.
It was the most far-reaching disruption for Facebook
During the crash, some users reported that the services were completely inaccessible, while others were able to access the platforms but were unable to post content. This affectation also reached Oculus, where the owners of virtual reality glasses were also affected.
We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing and using Oculus. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience while we work through this.
– Oculus Support (@OculusSupport) March 13, 2019
In fact, some sites and services such as Tinder or Spotify, which use Facebook as a method to log in, were also affected by not allowing millions of users to access these platforms. Even Workplace, the Facebook business app, also had problems.
Anddddd … we’re back. pic.twitter.com/5E8UdlcsPJ
– Instagram (@instagram) March 14, 2019
Everything should work now. Enjoy using WhatsApp!
– WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 14, 2019
As we mentioned, Facebook did not give many details and only limited itself to blaming the “server configuration change”. Despite rumors that Facebook was under attack, some even claimed to have proof of it. In the end, everything points to an internal failure in the company.
Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services. We’ve now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience.
– Facebook (@facebook) March 14, 2019
“Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had problems accessing our applications and services. We have already resolved the problems and our systems have recovered. We are very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you all for your patience. . “
In 2008, Facebook was down for almost 24 hours, affecting its 80 million users at the time. Even before yesterday’s crash, this interruption was considered the largest in the history of the company, but this new failure broke that own record, since, according to the first estimates, affected more than 1.2 billion users, only from Facebook.
Nevertheless, it was by no means the last big massive drop experienced by the three services of the Zuckerberg empire. Just a month later we saw that they again suffered a global failure (less lasting) and in July of the same year they almost beat their own record. 2019, of course, was not the best year for these well-known apps / networks.
Winners: Telegram and PornHub
Whenever a drop of this magnitude occurs, and especially when it comes to the most used services in the world, users start looking for options and in this case there were two winners from the fall of Facebook and its family of applications: Telegram and PornHub, or at least they are the only ones who came out to say it.
In the case of Telegram, Pavel Durov, the creator of the application, stated that his application gained three million users in the hours following the big cut, which is added to the 200 million reported by the company in 2018. For comparison, WhatsApp reported, also in 2018, that they had more than 1.5 billion active users.
On the other hand, we have the case of PornHub, who reported that during those 24 hours, which coincided with the fall of Facebook and its sister applications, their traffic skyrocketed with spikes of up to 19%. Even the searches on the site presented curious things, since terms like ‘Facebook’ increased by 221%, while searches for the word ‘Instagram’ had a peak of up to 323%, according to the same PornHub.
