Facebook and Instagram users are having trouble accessing the social media sites in an apparent outage.
Photo: Photo / AFP
Some users aren't able to open the sites and others can access them but not load all the features. The technical problems were affecting users in many countries and extended to the companys's WhatsApp messenger service.
The DownDetector website which tracks reports of outages recorded a spike of complaints this morning with Facebook users reporting difficulties with posting and many of the sites features.
Facebook said the technical problems were not caused by a distributed denial of service attack - where the target is swamped by traffic from different sources in an attempt to prevent it responding to legitimate users.
Facebook posted to Twitter saying the company was working to resolve the issue.
#FacebookDown oh well productivity in #NZ just gone up 25% this morning. pic.twitter.com/Uvnqqk4iW3
— Reality Estate NZ (@RealityEstateNZ) November 12, 2018
Technology commentator Paul Brislen said the outages seemed to be affecting a random selection of users dotted around the world. He said there was no sign of hacking.
Canterbury Police are pleading with the public to not call in about the outage.
We know. Our @facebook and @instagram haven’t been working either. Unfortunately we cannot do anything about this because, you know, they’re based in America and we’re the Police. So please don’t call us to report this. Pretty please.
— Canterbury Police NZ (@NZPCanterbury) March 13, 2019
Other social media users are also reacting to the situation on Twitter.
Me: Instagram and Facebook are down.
— James Breakwell, Exploding Unicorn (@XplodingUnicorn) March 13, 2019
Wife: Oh, no. You'll have to interact with people in person.
Me: No. There's still Twitter.
Me coming to twitter because #facebookdown & #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/sHfhG61FAv
— Killedbysocietyy (@Hersocietyy) March 13, 2019
Twitter when Instagram and Facebook both crash #instagramdown #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/DLVQBJ3WbJ
— Courtney (@courtsx08) March 13, 2019
#FacebookDown oh well productivity in #NZ just gone up 25% this morning. pic.twitter.com/Uvnqqk4iW3
— Reality Estate NZ (@RealityEstateNZ) November 12, 2018
I wonder if this outage of Facebook and Instagram will make people think about how much time they spend on these networks, and how they might be addicted to them. #instagramdown #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/j7MP1cpgOY
— Giant Pumpkin NZ (@giantpumpkinnz) March 13, 2019
