Facebook Goes Down Thrice, Users Panic, Hashtag #FacebookDown Trends

Websites go offline all the time. However, when it’s Facebook that goes down, the world panics with it. On September 17th, September 24th, and September 28th, Facebook experienced outages, due to technical errors. Those affected quickly took to Twitter to lampoon the moment, spurting comedy such as: “Log: Hour 3. Food scarce. Morale is low. People walking around, showing photos, asking if strangers "like" them. #facebookdown”

Source: https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/647087802837008384

“Just looked out of window and seen everyone is in the street showing each other what they're having for supper. #facebookdown”

Source: https://twitter.com/Jordan_Jud/status/648584247914184704

“Facebook is down. Please refrain from genuine human contact until the problem is resolved.”

Source: https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/647087714739707906

“Facebook is down. How am I meant to judge the people I went to school with now? #FacebookDown”

Source: https://twitter.com/UKBanter/status/647093590573891584

“Is everybody ok? Did something happen? Are the zombies attacking? I'm scared!!! #facebookdown”

Source: https://twitter.com/MootePoints/status/647089306566168576

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While most of the comments on Twitter are purely comedic, they echo how inescapable Facebook has become for the modern-day human’s daily routine. AdWeek was quick to point out that Facebook’s downtime was actually the perfect platform for brands to jostle for relevance by jumping in on the issue.

They highlighted intrepid social media managers who were quick to ride the wave of the incident, seizing the moment to promote brand visibility through quick-witted comments. It’s interesting how big brands and mom and pops alike were able to grab their 15 seconds of visibility thanks to the social media giant’s downtime. Check out the interesting tweets from brands on AdWeek: https://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/facebook-down-and-everyone-looking-twitter-brands-missed-their-moment-167215

Facebook managed to get the site back up in minutes, so for the rest of the world that was actually sleeping as the downtime happened, nobody really missed a beat.

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For more of the hilarity that ensued on Twitter regarding Facebook, E! Online compiled the tweets: https://www.eonline.com/news/699552/facebook-went-down-and-people-acted-like-the-end-of-days-was-here

Mashable’s take on the downtime brouhaha: https://mashable.com/2015/09/28/facebook-down-again-september/#g4qx7p3AEGqA

TechCrunch on the Facebook downtime: https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/28/yes-facebook-is-down/#.xek21q:Vh0p