Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Outage Inspires Panic and Memes

Facebook and related platforms hit users with the unique joys of a disruption in services on Monday.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led site—as well as the Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp platforms—went down for unknown reasons. And while this doesn’t mark the first time the extended Facebook universe has been infiltrated with outages, the reactions are just as enthusiastic as always.

At the time of this writing, Downdetector showed that reports of Facebook outages spiked at more than 86,000 around 11:42 a.m. ET. Around the same time, Instagram had shown nearly 76,000 outage reports. 

Not long after word of the outage started manifesting in jokes and memes, Facebook ironically took to Twitter to confirm they were working on it.

“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,” the official Facebook account on Twitter said. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

Worth noting here, though there is currently no indication of a connection, is the fact that—just this past weekend—a Facebook whistleblower identified herself in an in-depth 60 Minutes interview. The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, anonymously filed complaints last month revolving around the platform’s alleged “conflicts of interest.”

Speaking with 60 Minutes, Haugen—who will testify before Congress this week—said the “version of Facebook” being used today is “tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence” on a global scale.

Complex has reached out to a Facebook rep for comment. In the meantime, enjoy some reactions—via Twitter, of course—below.