Facebook Is Down, Internet Freaking Out

No it’s not just you. Facebook is down and the Internet is freaking out.

The social media and networking site went down on Thursday in the early afternoon and many took to other sites such as Twitter to lament see if others are having the same problem.

“When Facebook goes down, I go to twitter to see if it is a real deal. Yes, I’m not the only one with #facebookdown,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Facebook is not working properly right now,” confirmed another.

Some have attempted to comfort their grieving friends with one person saying, “Yes Facebook is down nothing wrong with your fb it’ll be back for those who’s checking.”

Other comments have ranged from, “I only use twitter for emergency info and to see if Facebook is really down,” to, “Facebook acting up for you? I can not seem to load pages right now.”

While it can be frustrating when Facebook goes down due to it being, arguably, the biggest social network site, the developers there are doing some big things.

In fact, Facebook is, quite literally, reinventing the face of social media every single day, and in December, they rolled out another new feature that is a real game-changer.

Now, any time a photo of you is posted by someone else on Facebook you will be notified. Even if you are not tagged in the photo, as reported by Buzzfeed.

In a blog post, Joaquin Candela, Facebook’s director of applied machine learning, said that the company is “doing this to prevent people from impersonating others on Facebook.”

“We always respect the privacy setting people select when posting a photo on Facebook (whether that’s friends, public or a custom audience), so you won’t receive a notification if you’re not in the audience,” Candela added.

Reportedly, the new feature isn’t necessarily a complete safeguard from people trying to impersonate others since they could simply adjust the audience controls on their posts, but it certainly feels like a step in a good direction.

In addition to the new facial recognition features to help protect users from social media identity theft, the company is also adding a setting that will allow users to turn off facial recognition on their page.

Finally, Facebook also revealed that they are adding a new tool for sight-impaired user that will read out names of people tagged in photos. Regarding this feature Candela said, “We’re always working to make it easier for all people, regardless of ability, to access Facebook, make connections and have more opportunities.”