Facebook, along with the company’s entire network of services that includes Messenger, Instagram and Whattsapp have all gone down in a major outage sending a frenzy of user complaints across the globe.
Facebook have acknowledged the outages but did not say why its websites and applications were down.
On Twitter, Facebook communications exec Andy Stone says, “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Meanwhile, Instagram tweeted: “Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it!”
The crash is the number one trending topic in the world with over 5 million plus searches in the first hour according to Google. Tens of millions of businesses are reported to be affected.
US news sites report that the outage comes after a whistleblower said that the world’s largest social network is prioritizing profits over users’ safety.
The impact on Samoa will be felt locally and also for contacting friends and relatives overseas. Small businesses who rely heavily on social media platforms for marketing their products and services will also feel the outage impacts if services are not soon restored.
A 2019 report by social media analysts NapoleonCat records over 60% of the population are users of Facebook and its products.
The Samoa diaspora across the globe are not included in this analysis, however, Facebook and its products are used to remain in contact with family, and has become crucial during prolonged periods of border lockdowns due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
