What’s basically the worst thing that could possibly happen during a major snowstorm? No, it’s not frostbite or starvation. It’s being unable to share your snow experience on social media.
This nightmare came to fruition early this morning, when Facebook and Instagram both crashed in several pockets around the country, including the blizzard-ravaged northeast:
Map shows extent of Facebook outage. Looks like a big chunk of U.S. affected #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/dxz5F8K0tY
— Saeed Ahmed (@saeed_ahmed) January 27, 2015The hacker group Lizard Squad—which carried out the Christmas Day hack of PSN and Xbox Live—claimed responsibility:
Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, AIM, Hipchat #offline #LizardSquad
— Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) January 27, 2015But then Zuckerberg and Co. shut that one down pretty quickly, saying in a statement that “Earlier today many people had trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram. This was not the result of a third party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems. We moved quickly to fix the problem, and both services are back to 100% for everyone.”
But that didn’t stop people from having meltdowns via Twitter, which was briefly the last social media outlet standing:
Facebook is down. I’m currently standing outside on the sidewalk offering pics of my breakfast & cat to anyone walking past. #facebookdown
— Simon te Brinke (@gramercypark) January 27, 2015
Manual Facebook Update Protocols Engaged: #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/vxxgC6CMYf
— King Podge (@kingpodge) January 27, 2015
That moment when Facebook is down! :D #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/pNwFs7xWMx
— Sanam Baloch (@SanamBalochfans) January 27, 2015Everything is back online now, however, and all is right with the world.
[via Buzzfeed]
