Charis Chrisna
TechInAfrica – On Wednesday, July 3rd 2019, the majority of internet users questioned on how Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook were experiencing major disruptions—so much that individuals and businesses couldn’t post photos, stories, or even scroll through their feed. This issue revolved primarily around North American and European users, albeit users from further regions like Africa and Asia were also affected by this inconvenience. Specifically for Facebook and Instagram, this disturbance of network applies to the desktop and the mobile version of the referred social media platforms. The error was correspondingly accompanied by a frequent message that describes pictures such as ‘Image may contain: person smiling’.
Approximately 14,000 users had reported that Instagram was unavailable for use during the period of time, along with 7,500 reports on Facebook and 1,600 reports on WhatsApp.
During the same day, however, a Facebook representative spoke that a significant technical difficulty was triggered by accident—when the developers were running their routine maintenance operations. Instagram’s official Twitter account confirmed that the platform was indeed experiencing problems, saying that “we’re aware that some people are having trouble uploading or sending images and videos on Instagram. We’re sorry for the trouble and are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. #instagramdown”
We’re aware that some people are having trouble uploading or sending images and videos on Instagram. We’re sorry for the trouble and are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. #instagramdown
— Instagram (@instagram) July 3, 2019
Following that tweet, users from across the world voiced their concerns on the micro-blogging site with the same hashtag.
At around 8 PM (Eastern Standard Time), the platforms seemed to be up and running again accompanied by a corresponding statement from Facebook officials. Yet it seemed only their own developers and engineers knew what was the exact cause of the platforms’ failure, as they never released a full statement regarding such troubles.
It wasn’t the first time that Instagram had experienced this sort of distress. Their longest outage—this year, that is—was in March, in which it lasted roughly around 24 hours. Providing another example of this outrageous occasion was on June, when users were constricted of using various features on the mobile app.
Source: variety.com
