Every New Yorker alive in the summer of 1977 remembers what went down during the city’s legendary blackout, so maybe we’ll all be asked about what happened on Wednesday, March 13th — a.k.a. the day that both Facebook and Instagram went down for hours. Indeed, as of this writing, whatever’s ailing the two social media giants/timesucks has not been fully remedied. But you know what hasn’t gone down? Twitter.
The outage happened around Noon EST and affected Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. The problem, as per USA Today? An “accidental traffic jam issue with a European internet company that collided with Facebook and other websites,” according to an engineer with network performance firm Netscout. There was no sign that the outage was caused by anything malicious, such as a cyber-attack. It’s simply something that happens from time to time. This one just happens to be more widespread and it’s taking forever to fix.
That means that everyone came crawling back to Twitter, even though it’s superior — or at least slightly less evil — than Facebook, if not the relatively squeaky clean Instagram. Words failed people, more than they usually do. And so almost everyone spoke exclusively in the language of gifs.
#FacebookDown
After I thought maybe I was banned from Facebook I came here to learn Facebook is just stupid. pic.twitter.com/64ZeiOM2Mi— Rich Vratny (@ISU_REV) March 13, 2019
#Facebookdown When Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram stop working and everyone turns to Twitter to ask….. pic.twitter.com/Cqibo1vFgw
— Lorraine Malcolm (@Lorraineno9) March 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/MLxwolf_/status/1105952512039944192
https://twitter.com/24AhmedAlii/status/1105953842154426373
Some channeled R. Kelly’s interview with Gayle King.
Me talking to Facebook and Instagram:#FacebookDown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/JvSCWR7zSo
— Philly Front Line (@KSull215) March 13, 2019
Some blamed Thanos.
FACEBOOK Has Been Down So Long That THANOS Is Being Blamedhttps://t.co/J0qdOqJZK0 pic.twitter.com/4oy8kxRWvS
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) March 13, 2019
Soulja Boy had a solution, which you can read about more over here.
Facebook???? Instagram???? Atleast the Soulja App isn’t down 🤷🏾♂️
— Soulja Boy (Draco) (@souljaboy) March 13, 2019
A favorite thing to focus on: the idea that Twitter doesn’t look so bad now after all.
People that never use Twitter coming back while Facebook is down lol #FacebookDown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/GaN0nBy1df
— meez (@TorresElmot20) March 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/Jossy29474226/status/1105951583731359744
Facebook is down !
Instagram is down !
Welcome to my twitter ! pic.twitter.com/Yjk4o9BVOH— Tommy Wiseau (@TommyWiseau) March 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/itsjazzzyyy/status/1105950444612931585
Facebook and Instagram go down. I’m back on Twitter like. #FacebookDown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/116qQSK8h5
— Josiah (@josiahwalehwa) March 13, 2019
Some predicted that in the future our kids will ask us about this day.
Son, I wasn't alive for the Donner Party or Pearl Harbor; but I am old enough to remember when both Facebook and Instagram were down at the same time during that terrible winter of '19
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) March 13, 2019
In any case, we have to make do with our new primitive post-apocalyptic wasteland, when we only have Twitter to amuse ourselves. Someone channeled the 1998 film Pleasantville, which happened to co-star William H. Macy, who’s in the news for a completely different reason.
How it feels after hours without Facebook… pic.twitter.com/BQWlZSVFtJ
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) March 13, 2019
Of course, we could all just put down our phones and gizmos and pick up a book… whatever those are.
When you have to read because Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp are all down. #FacebookDown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/T2THUjI1Wx
— Rants and Big Pants (@rantsbigpants) March 13, 2019
Oh, and let’s not forget that this could open the door for a competitor.
Facebook AND Instagram are down…
MySpace, it's your chance to make a comeback!#FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/ILccg1PtC8
— Troy Osinoff 🕺 (@yo) March 13, 2019
instagram and facebook are down but Denny's is always open
— Denny’s (@DennysDiner) March 13, 2019
(Via USA Today)