Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back online after a global outage lasting nearly six hours on Monday, affecting users in the UK, US, Australia and other countries. The company apologised for the disruption, which it attributed to faulty configuration changes on its backbone routers.
The outage began around 5pm UK time, with users unable to access the platforms. Downdetector.com reported over 10.6 million problem reports, making it the largest outage the site had ever recorded. The majority of reports came from the US, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
In a blog post, Facebook explained that configuration changes on routers coordinating network traffic between data centres caused a cascading effect, halting services. The company said there was no evidence that user data was compromised.
The outage had widespread repercussions, affecting millions of users and businesses that rely on Facebook's platforms for communication and advertising. Small businesses, particularly those using WhatsApp for orders, reported significant losses. The disruption also forced Facebook to communicate via Twitter, where the platform's official account joked: 'Hello literally everyone.'
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised once services were restored, acknowledging the reliance on the company's services. Engineers worked to resolve the issue, and by late Monday, access was gradually being restored.
