Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are down

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger are down. It is a worldwide breakdown, although users are not affected to the same extent. The hashtags #instagramdown and #facebookdown are trending on Twitter. On Down Detector shows how the number of problem reports suddenly shot into the air.

It is currently unclear what is going on. The outage started between 5.30 pm and 5.45 pm. At least ten thousand reports have already been received.

On Twitter, Facebook reports being aware that some people are having trouble reaching their “apps and products”. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

It seems to be a so-called DNS problem. Your phone or computer has a unique number combination that allows them to communicate with each other. Servers from platforms such as Facebook also have such a combination of numbers, so that the correct phone is linked to the website you want to surf to. At first sight, the problem seems to lie with that ‘GPS system’.

The chance that a Facebook server is hacked is rather small. “Their infrastructure is very well secured. It is difficult to predict how long this outage will last. However, rest assured that all alarms have gone off at Facebook.”