By Wonderwall.com Editors
6:00pm PST, Mar 8, 2024
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Thousands of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Threads users were unable to access their accounts on March 5 during a widespread outage caused by what the platforms' parent company, Meta, called a "technical issue."
As hashtags like "#FacebookDown" trended on X, more than 500,000 users on Facebook alone reported problems with their accounts beginning around 10 a.m. ET, worldwide, according to the website Downdetector. Many users cited login issues, with the sites having logged them out and failing to let them back in, and feed refresh or loading problems. Other social media sites including Youtube also suffered glitches, though none were as widespread, per the outlet.
Although Meta resolved the matter within a few hours, the snafu triggered speculation of a cyber attack, given the outage's Super Tuesday timing. It also sent throngs of famous users to X (formerly Twitter), where they vented their frustrations, memed Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg or, in X CEO Elon Musk's case, enjoyed a moment of public gloating.
Keep reading for the best reactions from Musk and more…
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"we know why you're all here [right now]" –X's official account on X
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Elon Musk wasn't the only one making fun of his tech rival on X on Tuesday.
The joke-filled X account Mark Zuckerberg (Parody) shared a photo of the Meta founder standing in front of a switchboard looking confused. "Guys, I'm trying to fix it," the post read. "Facebook and Instagram are down. This is my first time trying to do tech support. I'm used to people doing the work for me."
"We've found the issue!" read another post from a different Zuck parody account on X, this time featuring a photo of a plastic fork screwed into a pile of computer hardware. "Please give us some time to resolve it."
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An actual rep for Meta chimed in on X as well.
After acknowledging that the company was working to repair the outage, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone used X to announce the problem had been fixed, writing, "Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
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Responding to concern on social media about a possible connection between the Facebook and Instagram outage and the Super Tuesday primary elections, a spokesperson for the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told CNN, "At this time we are not aware of specific malicious cyber activity or any specific nexus to today's elections."
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"Is Instagram not working for anyone else?" –Katie Couric on X
