Social media giant Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) experienced a social media outage across all its owned platforms. Lasting 14 hours, the blackout was experienced on a global scale. Normal service has since resumed and, according to the company, the social media outage was the result of a server configuration change.

Social Media Outage

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Messenger were all affected with users unable to access the platforms for hours.

The tech giant has issued a statement since, apologizing for the incident saying it was “very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience.”

As stated, the company confirmed that the outage was the result of a server configuration change; however, some skeptics wonder was it a hacking attempt. Some suggested that the social media outage was the result of a “distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.”

DownDetector

Popular site DownDetector, a well-known site where users flag noted issues with major sites, received over 12,000 reports of issues with the social media platforms in a 9-hour period.

Thousands of reports came in on the hour every hour from around the world.

Facebook first acknowledged the social media outage on Wednesday. It sent out a tweet saying “some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps.”

As stated, the outage lasted approximately 14 hours with normal service resuming by Thursday morning. Instagram confirmed it was back up and running via Twitter.

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Social Media Outages

Back in November, Facebook faced a similar outage that was the result of a “routine test,” according to the company. The same issue occurred here whereby users were unable to access all of the tech giant’s platforms for some hours.

Did you notice the social media outage? Were you affected? Do you believe this was a hacking attempt or do you believe Facebook’s reasoning?

Featured Image: DepositPhotos © Julius