Oct 5, 2021: WhatsApp, the most-used smartphone messaging app, suffered hours of shutdown, with CEO Keith Cart announcing the restoration of the messaging app, saying WhatsApp was “backing up and running.”
Facebook-owned social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook itself, suffered a worldwide shutdown at around 8:30 p.m. The platform returned online around 4 a.m. after a seven-hour blackout.
Whatsapp CEO responded to the breakdown in service saying, “We’re entirely back up and running now, we know that people were unable to use WhatsApp to connect with their friends, family, businesses, community groups, and more today — a humbling reminder of how much people and organisations rely on our app every day.”
We take our mission seriously, and I'm grateful to everyone who worked hard to bring our service back with the reliability you expect from @WhatsApp. We'll learn and grow from this, and continue working to provide you with a simple, secure, and reliable private messaging app.
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) October 5, 2021
Cathcart said his company takes its mission very seriously. In a tweet, he thanked his team members for their efforts in restoring service operations. “I am grateful to all those who worked hard to bring back our service with the confidence that we expect from WhatsApp,” he said. “We will learn and grow from it, and continue to work to provide you with a simple, secure and reliable private messaging app.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reacted to the disruption to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services. He apologized to the service users and announced the resumption of their work.
Taking to Twitter, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer also offered an apology and in a later tweet, he announced the gradual restoration of Facebook.
To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.
— Meta (@Meta) October 4, 2021
Downdetector which provides real-time status and outage information for all types of services, revealed that the WhatsApp shutdown was reported at 8:23 pm (Pakistan Standard Time) and it was 1706 complaints by 9:06 p.m.
The website said Instagram was first reported shutting down at 7:59 p.m., while Facebook went down at about the same time.
WhatsApp last shut down in March and was restored a few hours later, however, the reason for the shutdown was not officially announced by the company.
The photo-sharing app Instagram was also discontinued earlier this month and was later restored.
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