The more than 2,900 million Facebook users , the more than 1,000 million Instagram users, the more than 2,000 million WhatsApp users , the more than 1,500 million Facebook Messenger users ... and also all those who wear sunglasses. virtual reality OculusVR saw how throughout the afternoon it was impossible to update their statuses, send messages or even access their applications.
This is the biggest drop in Facebook services so far in 2021 and one of the most important in its history - only surpassed by the almost 24-hour blackout that took place in 2019 - but ... why did it happen?
Generally, when there is a minimal interruption of the service, Facebook does not usually provide explanations. However, the magnitude of this error has been such that the company has published a post on its engineering blog to tell what happened.
Apparently, according to the company, the reason for the fall has been a change in the configuration of its routers. Facebook has not gone into depth to explain the error, but points out that there was a change in the DNS information and that the company's servers were disabled to communicate with each other, which was a cascade effect and that all services were inaccessible .
Facebook has officially denied that there has been an external attack or that users' personal data has been compromised, theories that circulated for hours yesterday on social networks.
What does seem to be confirmed is that in addition to their services being inaccessible, many company employees saw their access badges to the offices in the United States be disabled and they could not access their work centers until the error was solved.
The fall also caused Facebook's shares to collapse on the New York Stock Exchange. The price per share plummeted almost 5% to $ 326.23 per share, thus accumulating a 15% fall from the maximum recorded in September.
According to estimates by Fortune magazine, Mark Zuckerberg's personal fortune fell $ 6 billion in just one day, due to the fall.
Meanwhile, the great beneficiaries of the fall were Twitter - a social network that reached a historical maximum of activity, since many users came to it to express their frustration or communicate with others - and the instant messaging app Telegram, WhatsApp's main rival , which occupied the top positions yesterday in the lists of most downloaded apps in both the iOS and Android application stores.