Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down Worldwide After DNS Records Disappear; Employees Badges Reportedly Not Working
Update (1507ET): Facebook appears to have more than DNS issues, as NYT’ s Sheera Frenkel reports: “ Had been just on phone along with someone who works for WIKIPEDIA who described employees not able to enter buildings this morning to begin to evaluate extent of outage because their badges weren’ t working to access doors. ” Was just on phone with somebody who works […]#@@#@!!
Update (1507ET): Facebook appears to have more than DNS issues, as NYT’s Sheera Frenkel reports:
“ Was simply on phone with someone that works for FB who also described employees unable to enter buildings this morning to begin to judge extent of outage since their badges weren’t trying to access doors. ”
Was just on telephone with someone who works regarding FB who described employees unable to enter buildings today to begin to evaluate extent of outage because their badges weren’t working to access doorways.
— Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) October 4, 2021
This may suggest Facebook’s internal systems are straight down. DNS issues that affect the web site don’t hinder employees from entering buildings.
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Update (1448ET): It’s been several hours, and Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, plus Facebook Messenger, are still straight down. According to internet researchers, Facebook appears to be dealing with a Domain Name System (DNS) issue.
Internet security researcher Brian Krebs tweeted :
Confirmed: The DNS records that tell systems how to find Facebook. com or even Instagram. com got withdrawn this morning from the global routing tables. Can you imagine operating at FB right now, when your email no longer works & all your internal FB-based tools fail?
To be more accurate (and Geek Factor 5) the BGP routes serving Facebook’s authoritative DNS were withdrawn, rendering all Fb domains inaccessible. That’s for each @DougMadory, who knows a few things about BGP/DNS.
Searching for Facebook’s DNS records comes up empty-handed.
NBC News’ Kevin Collier called the DNS issues at Facebook “ really bad. ”
Don’t yet know exactly what’s behind the DNS issue absolutely knocked Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp offline, but it’s really bad. Pretty much everything that will runs through those 3 companies are inaccessible. Employees are unable to even enter conference rooms because they’re IoT!
— Kevin Collier (@kevincollier) October 4, 2021
There’s even a ripple impact across the internet.
JUST IN: Facebook’s DNS problem is really affecting the internet. DNS companies are being hammered with queries pic. tweets. com/GrzsJ5SHWm
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October four, 2021
In the meantime, everyone on Twitter…
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Downdector reports that Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook Messenger are encountering issues and /or black outs worldwide. The outage arrives just before a Facebook whistleblower is set to testify just before Congress on Tuesday.
Users began to document issues with the social media platform around 1120 ET.
Facebook users review the website won’t load by having an error message that reads:
“ Sorry, some thing went wrong. We’re working on it and we’ll have it fixed as soon as we can. ”
Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged on Twitter that “ some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. ”
We’re aware that many people are having trouble accessing the apps and products. Jooxie is working to get things returning to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October four, 2021
The particular timing of the widespread outages comes as a Facebook whistleblower will be testifying before Congress on Tuesday. The whistleblower appeared on “ 60 Minutes” Sunday, detailing the tech company’s mission to put income before doing “ that which was good for the public, ” which includes clamping down on hate conversation.
Shares of the tech company slid 6% by early afternoon, tumbling not just on the whistleblower but also the global outage.
Facebook users took to Tweets to complain about the black outs:
The Facebook DNS outage will quickly expose the hidden dependencies some of us have on Fb (company), even if we barely use the social network.
For me, it’s WhatsApp.
Reminds me of the story of when Search engines took down their “Chubby” service:
— Danny Kopping (@dannykopping) October 4, 2021
… plus there’s this:
Does anyone else think this Facebook outage is timed perfectly if they want to clean house when confronted with the whistleblower’s interview to ensure that even more dirt isn’t discovered?
— Bernard Palomo (@timpalomo1) October 4, 2021
Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger all down in major outage.
Conspiracy theorists say just shortly after Whistleblower job interview (which I’ve not seen) #facebook #interview
— Graham Riddell Photography (@GR_SLR) October 4, 2021
If anyone out there is thinking, I can confirm that Facebook plus Instagram are having massive black outs.
Weird following this whistleblower stuff from @60Minutes last night. https://t.co/NYS9C8gH5r
— Adam Greenbaum (@Greenbaumly) October 4, 2021
Twitter consumer Chad Loder tweeted: “ someone nuked the DNS A and AAA information for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. ”
Twitter CEO Jack port Dorsey responds to Loder’s tweet and asks “ how much? ”
how much? https://t.co/fH0zXw7rV9
— jack⚡ ️ (@jack) October 4, 2021
Let the conspiracy theory theorists run wild with today’s events:
“ Facebook is down because it was trending for a whistleblower testifying before congress nowadays. Now they are trending for being down. Clever PR stunt, ” stated one Twitter user .
On the bright side, with a broad part of social media systems down today, maybe individuals will get back to work and boost global productivity since the outage is broad.
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