Is WhatsApp down? Thousands of users are affected by outage
What's the story
Is WhatsApp down? That's what thousands of users around the world are asking. According to the outage tracking website Downdetector.com, several users have reported issues with WhatsApp. From what we know so far, the outage has affected users in India as well. A Meta spokesperson has commented on the issue saying that it is working to restore WhatsApp quickly for everyone.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Another day, another popular social media platform has gone down. This has become such a regular occurrence that people are not even shocked. What is causing them? The funny thing is, we will never know. Because rarely do companies come out and say what went wrong. Is it too much to ask for a bit more accountability from billion-dollar tech giants?
Outage
Users are unable to send or receive messages
At the time of writing this report, Downdetector.com showed 68,542 reports of incidents related to WhatsApp post 12:00 pm. Users are unable to send or receive personal or group messages. According to the website's heat map, most affected users in India are located in Delhi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai. We fear that users elsewhere are affected too.
Humor
What is the public's reaction?
When you have an issue with your social media platform, what do you do? You go to Twitter to complain about it. That is exactly what's happening now. WhatsApp users have taken to the microblogging site en masse to talk about the outage. As expected, their reactions are hilarious. The meme and GIF fest has started on the platform.
Twitter Post
The relief knowing WhatsApp is down for others
When your WhatsApp is playing up but you come to Twitter and see that everyone else is having the same problem #WhatsAppDown pic.twitter.com/pMcJm0Zn56
— Jamie (@GingerPower_) October 25, 2022
Twitter Post
This is how everyone runs to Twitter
People Coming to Twitter to see if WhatsApp is down#WhatsappDown pic.twitter.com/eGi25KiQhU
— Bella Ciao (Chai) (@punjabiii_munda) October 25, 2022
Previous outage
First major WhatsApp outage since October last year
This is the first major WhatsApp outage since it went down as part of the outage that also took down Instagram, Messenger, Oculus, and Facebook. It took Meta six hours to resolve the issue. It was caused due to a configuration change to the company's routers. The current outage hasn't affected Instagram or Facebook. The question is, how long until it is fixed?
Twitter Post
Meta is working on fixing the issue
#UPDATE | "We're aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we're working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible," says Meta Company Spokesperson
— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2022