After suffering a downtime that lasted several hours throughout the globe, Facebook has come out to blame a "server configuration change" for the mess.
The interruption affected Facebook's family of apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and even gameplay for those using Oculus VR headsets.
"Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services. We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We're very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate's everyone's patience," Facebook said on Twitter.
Services such as Spotify, Tinder, and others that uses Facebook credentials were unable to authorize logins for users .Facebook's connectivity platform for companies, Workplace also had the same issue that its bigger sibling experienced.Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services. We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience.— Facebook (@facebook) March 14, 2019
At the initial stage of the problem, some users thought it was due to a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the social networking giant. However, Facebook later acknowledged the issue but said it had nothing to do with a DDoS attack.
In 2008, Facebook was knocked offline by a bug that lasted a whole day. Last year November 2018, Facebook blamed a bug in their server that sent both Facebook and Instagram offline.
Facebook boasts about 2.3 billion monthly users and is only threatened by WhatsApp which is another Facebook owned company. However, with Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp down, Telegram, a rival messaging service gained about 200 million newly registered users who were frustrated with the Facebook owned services.
If events like this coupled with its never privacy issues, data scandals keeps happening, Facebook will see a decline in her user-base. Already, WhatsApp's co-founder has been campaigning for users around the world to delete the Facebook app.