A huge number of Facebook users were not able to access the social networking site for an hour on Tuesday. In succeeding reports, it appeared Instagram was also affected and was inaccessible to its users.
According to a report by CNN, Facebook and Instagram both went down shortly after 12 a.m. EST, which forced its frustrated users to go to Twitter and complain about the issue.
In the report, millions of users from all over the world were affected, most of them receiving the message "Sorry, something went wrong" once they enter the Facebook URL. As for others, some reported that the page simply failed to load.
As a result, it is not surprising that Twitter 'exploded' with the hashtag #facebookdown, which became a trending topic worldwide as well.
According to website Down Detector, the affected areas include some parts of the United States, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
In a statement to CNN, Facebook spokeswoman Charlene Chian said, "We're aware that many people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram," Facebook spokeswoman Charlene Chian told CNN. "We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible."
However, during the time that Facebook and Instagram were both down - a grand total of more or less one hour - dozens of funny memes have been posted showing how disruptive the downtime has been to Facebook users.
In the report, Charles Riley of CNN Money reported that the social media website released a statement right after Facebook and Instagram both went back online. The announcement denied rumors of a third-party attack, and the downtime instead occurred after they introduced a change that affected the configuration systems.
For the past several months, hackers and identity thieves have been very busy cracking the security codes of different companies. While the Facebook downtime was assured not to be linked to an attack, no one can assure it won't happen again.
Still, some cybersecurity experts recommended that social media users should not post everything about themselves in their accounts. Confidential information like phone numbers and credit or debit card information should be kept securely to avoid getting compromised.
