Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp Being Down Draws out the Funniest Memes and Tweets

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all came crashing down on Monday, sparking hundreds of memes on Twitter. While Facebook and its products have been down in the past, Monday’s outage felt a little different as it came just hours after CBS News’ 60 Minutes featured an interview with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. In her interview, Haugen alleged that Facebook is aware that its platforms are used to spread misinformation, hate, and violence that have all had real-world consequences around the world. Last week, Haugen released documents to regulators and the Wall Street Journal, ahead of her testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” Facebook said Monday, in a statement that was published on rival Twitter. 

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer also posted an update on Twitter Monday afternoon as the outage began its fourth hour. “Sincere apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook-powered services right now,” Schroepfer wrote. “We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.”

In the past, Facebook outages have rarely lasted this long. Some security experts noted that a Domain Name System (DNS) could be a possible reason for the outage, reports CNN Business. ThousandEyes, Cisco’s internet analysis division, noted around 1 p.m. ET that Facebook’s “authoritative DNS nameservers became unreachable at that time.” During the outage, Facebook.com has been completely inaccessible. WhatsApp and Instagram were available, but users could not send new messages or post new images.

Since the outage began, Twitter users around the world pounced on the chance to make jokes. Brands got in on the fun, as did many celebrities. Here’s a look at some of the funniest memes and tweets the outage inspired.

‘I can’t work this long without distractions’

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“How am I suppose to pretend I don’t have work to do if Instagram and Facebook are down?? I can’t work this long without distractions,” one person wrote.

‘I just posted the big Guardians Easter egg on Facebook’

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“I just posted the big Guardians Easter egg on Facebook for everyone to see,” director James Gunn joked.

‘Us refreshing Facebook and Instagram every 5 minutes’

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“Just found out Instagram and Facebook are gone and we are finally free,” author Kelly Oxford wrote.

‘What are you doing with your free time?’

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“Welcome back to twitter to the people who have realised instagram is down! We are all still angry here. Someone who you’ve never met but apparently hates everything about you will be along to DM you shortly,” comedian Aaron Gillies wrote.

‘Your local library is probably still open’

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“Your local library is probably still open,” one Twitter user noted.

‘Internet apocalypse?’

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“Instagram and Facebook and WhatsApp down.. ppl are saying their TikTok and Twitter isn’t working now too… THE INTERNET APOCALYPSE???” one person wrote, referring to isolated reports that other social media platforms were not working.