Instagram down facebook down
Australian actress Dulcie Cooper (1903 – 1981) in a scene from the film ‘The Face on the Barroom Floor’, 1932. (Photo by Vintage Images / Getty Images)

As a writer, my morning routine typically starts by scrolling through Instagram and Facebook for any news (or otherwise) that broke overnight. This morning as I prepared to scroll 10 minutes longer than I should, was drastically cut short when I noticed my ride or die social applications failed to refresh. I rebooted my internet. Check. Then I updated my apps. Check. It wasn’t until I Googled, “Instagram not working” that I realised the social media giant was experiencing a worldwide outage.

Below is an accurate depiction of my morning.

The reason behind the outage is unclear, but according to the Sydney Morning Herald it is very rare on a global scale. The news broke shortly after a whistleblower Frances Haugen – who accuses the company of failing to protect its users – handed internal research to US lawmakers and the Wall Street Journal. The findings suggest Facebook knew, but didn’t disclose, the negative impact of its services. She is a former product manager for the company.

Naturally the social media app Twitter, which is owned by Snapchat Inc., revelled in the tech difficulties. Users-turned-comedians flocked to the service and published reactions and memes surrounding the news. And for Instagram fans, it filled a social media-shaped void.

Squid Game was a popular theme of choice (if you haven’t watched the series and have a strong stomach, it’s good!) while some users decided to post throwback images to old technology like the landline phone and first desktop computers. How would Gen Z-ers even communicate without Facebook and WhatsApp?

For many, the three popular apps have now been restored after a lengthy six hours. Below, enjoy our compilation of the best Twitter reactions from the whole debacle. You’re welcome.