'Trying to keep morale up': Facebook outage brings the Twitter one-liners
When millions lose access to their cousin's friends' birthdays Thursday morning they turn to Twitter to ease the suffering with humor and a few great GIFs.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
When the world is faced with the horror of a Facebook outage, luckily there are other social-media sites for sharing our collective grief. And so it was that Twitter momentarily got transformed into a worldwide stream of freak-outs and one-liners Thursday morning.
Facebook.com showed an error message for an estimated millions of users worldwide, starting around 9:45 a.m. PT and lasting for about 45 minutes, according to user reports on isitdownrightnow.com.
Facebook didn't immediately respond to a CNET request for comment. In the meantime, the service has come back up, it seems, but that hasn't stopped the stream of comedy coming out of Twitter.
BREAKING: Patriots being investigated for recent Facebook crash. #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/ZP7QW4f2M1
— Faux NFL Network™ (@FauxNFLnetwork) September 24, 2015Fortunately, none of the below suggestions came to fruition because Facebook came back online before anyone had enough time to put on pants and allow their eyes to adjust to the horrid bright light of the out of doors.
FB users r roaming the streets nn tears, showing pictures of themselves in other people's faces yelling 'Do you like this'? #FacebookDown :p
— Amir Sohail (@ItsAmirSohail) September 24, 2015How I'll be sharing photos now #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/PI6Pi3EN1C
— Michael Gillett (@MichaelGillett) September 24, 2015A similar "="" after="" half-hour="" outage"="" shortcode="link" asset-type="article" uuid="e53acc18-df82-4fad-974c-408305eb3bec" slug="facebook-down-in-multiple-countries" link-text="Facebook outage happened last summer" section="news" title="Facebook " edition="us" data-key="link_bulk_key"> . At least we now have had a taste of what the end times will look like, which should come in handy if you believe an Asteroid will destroy us all next week.
people from the neighbourhood are sitting here in the dark, candles burning, trying to keep morale up. trying to survive. #facebookdown
— Donald Fraser (@ptbo_skeptic) September 24, 2015praying for everyone with a birthday today, frantically hitting refresh. #facebookdown
— Andi McLellan (@AndiMcLellan) September 24, 2015I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror...
#facebookdown pic.twitter.com/S9rGfLGfnH
— Michael M. Hughes (@michaelmhughes) September 24, 2015Of course, outages of major services offer a moment for us all to examine their role in our lives and reflect on just how obsessed some of us have become. No Facebook access can even feel more like liberation to some of us, and Thursday's little taste of freedom may not have been nearly enough:
Me when #facebookdown happened then went back up. pic.twitter.com/AcrloGZljt
— Tara Brown (@Faux_Ma) September 24, 2015It seems Facebook's engineers may have also been cruising Twitter during the outage, because they eventually found the problem and got things rolling again, perhaps after taking this advice:
Don't worry Facebook techs I made a whimsical meme just for you #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/thbdKRVyLo
— Sophie Mason (@SophieMason3) September 24, 2015For now, everything seems back to normal. Please resume liking and sharing. It's probably fortunate for Facebook that it hasn't yet launched its rumored "="" button"="" shortcode="link" asset-type="article" uuid="54f474bd-6c94-4c63-9379-6508749976fc" slug="facebookis-working-on-a-dislike-button" link-text="" section="news" title="Facebook sees a 'dislike' button in your future" edition="us" data-key="link_bulk_key" api="{"id":"54f474bd-6c94-4c63-9379-6508749976fc","slug":"facebookis-working-on-a-dislike-button","contentType":null,"edition":"us","topic":{"slug":"online"},"metaData":{"typeTitle":null,"hubTopicPathString":"Tech^Services and Software^Online","reviewType":null},"section":"news"}"> just yet, as it would likely have broken this morning.
Wait a second, this outage happened shortly after I shared the latest CraveCast featuring the long-awaited return of my adolescent afro... I wonder if it was "dislike" button beta testers watching the show that broke Facebook this morning after all.
Sorry, with Facebook down today I had to find another venue to make up for those lost opportunities to talk about myself. Carry on...