Facebook is not having a great week (and it’s only Monday). On the heels of Sunday night’s 60 Minutes episode — in which former FB data scientist Francis Haugen identified herself as the whistleblower who produced internal research to the feds — the social media platform is down. Since Facebook owns Instagram, that platform, too, has crashed, and WhatsApp (which is very popular on the global chat scene) has bit it as well. The timing is wild, since Haugen claimed to have witnessed how the Mark Zuckerberg-helmed Facebook used its algorithm to prioritize profit over civic duty. This, arguably, could have helped spark the environment that led to the January 6 insurrection. Now, the Internet is chaos at this time because Facebook has been inaccessible for hours and tweeted that they’re (definitely) aware of the issue.
We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
— Facebook (@facebook) October 4, 2021
What, exactly, is going on? Journalist Brian Krebs (formerly of Washington Post) confirmed that the Facebook and Instagram DNS records appear to have completely evaporated from global routing tables. No one knows why; people have noticed.
The ENTIRE FUCKING DOMAIN FOR FACEBOOK NO LONGER EXISTS: pic.twitter.com/RF43YBVv6h
— Reed Savory (@ReedSavory) October 4, 2021
Amid the ruckus, Twitter is still standing. And they want everyone to know that it. The main Twitter account even tweeted, “hello literally everyone” while the #DeleteFacebook hashtag increased in popularity.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1445078208190291973
CEO Jack Dorsey (who’s not at a silent meditation retreat at this time) definitely heard what’s up, too. Jack retweeted a user who remarked upon how the DNS records for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp got “nuked.” Here’s Jack’s take: “how much?”
how much? https://t.co/fH0zXw7rV9
— jack (@jack) October 4, 2021
Jack kept on trolling while tweeting a smile emoji in response to a memed Getty photo of Usain Bolt (tweeted by Usain Bolt) beating the competition.
😁
— jack (@jack) October 4, 2021
Despite it all, the WhatsApp Twitter account did wave at Jack’s Twitter account, and he cheekily tweeted back: “thought this was supposed to be encrypted…”
👋 hello!
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) October 4, 2021
thought this was supposed to be encrypted…
— jack (@jack) October 4, 2021
This ain’t over yet. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have been down for hours with no clear resolution in sight.