Facebook is one of the largest social networks on the planet, a platform that spans the globe with billions of users. Unfortunately, on the morning of March 5, 2024, the services of the Meta platform, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, stopped working for nearly 2 hours, according to Downdetector. The cause of Facebook’s downtime this time has not yet been officially reported, but I think there must have been some incident, such as data updating, internet disruption, or simply… a power outage. The daily lives of many users, including myself, are often closely tied to Meta’s services, especially Facebook. Let’s explore together what happened during the time Facebook was down, and what users did during that time.
Most users were confused and worried
When I was browsing Facebook, I was suddenly logged out of my account. When I tried to log back into Facebook, I received an error message. I checked other Meta services, including Messenger, Instagram, and Threads, and found that all of them were down. The sudden inability to access Facebook, without any available news source, made me think that my account had been hacked. It wasn’t until Facebook was restored that I realized that many users, not just me, thought their accounts might have been hacked, and the community was very actively discussing this.
What did people do during the time Facebook was down?
I tried to search for information about the Facebook outage on various platforms, including TikTok. I noticed that everyone went there to talk about the Facebook outage, and the discussions were very lively.
Similarly, on X.com and YouTube, a lot of new videos and topics were published revolving around the issue of Facebook going down. The hashtag #facebookoutage was used extensively on these platforms.
Interestingly, within just 2 hours of Facebook going down, Meta’s stock dropped by (-1.86%) but recovered after Facebook came back.
Conclusion
This incident highlights the extent of Facebook’s and Meta’s platforms’ impact on users worldwide. A short downtime period caused a global stir, taking users through a rollercoaster of emotions. Fortunately, everything has now returned to normal. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if Facebook were to shut down permanently one day. Let’s hope that never happens.
