The CEO of Instagram has said today feels like a 'snow day' for staff after the popular social media platform went down along with Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.
This afternoon, the Facebook-owned sites all suddenly went down, with the issue said to be affecting users globally.
Most of us have been able to pass the time by hopping onto Twitter to post a hilarious meme or - wilder still - picking up a book, but it seems even staff are having a bit of a tumbleweed moment amid all the chaos.
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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri tweeted to admit the day has resembled something of a 'snow day' for employees - referring, of course, to the name given to a day when a school or institution is forced to close due to extreme weather, and everyone gets an unexpected day off.
Responding to a tweet that suggested Instagram should 'stay offline forever', Mosseri wrote: "Them fighting words... but it does feel like a snow day."Workplace, Facebook's internal communications platform, has also been affected - leaving many employees unable to do their jobs, according to the New York Times, which reports: "Two Facebook workers called it the equivalent of a 'snow day'."
The outlet's technology reporter Ryan Mac also tweeted: "Not only are Facebook's services and apps down for the public, its internal tools and communications platforms, including Workplace, are out as well. No one can do any work. Several people I've talked to said this is the equivalent of a 'snow day' at the company."
Posting on Twitter, Facebook said it was working to resolve the issue.
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It said in a statement: "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."
A similar tweet from Instagram read: "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."
A tweet on the official WhatsApp page also said: "We're aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We're working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!"
As for what's going on, TechCrunch reports that users have been met with a server error when navigating to the respective sites.
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"Instagram shows a '5xx server error', which indicates that this is an issue with Facebook's servers," the outlet said.
"Users are also unable to send messages or load new content on the mobile apps for these platforms. Even Oculus, Facebook's virtual reality platform, is experiencing outages, according to a tweet the platform posted.
"It appears that the outage is caused by a DNS (domain name server) fail - this is the naming structure that forms the web's infrastructure. So, if you try to navigate to facebook.com right now, the internet won't know where to find facebook.com."
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Instagram, World News, News, Facebook, Technology
