Facebook back online after temporary outage
Facebook experienced a temporary outage on Friday, prompting many users to flock to Twitter.
On Friday afternoon, many Facebook users encountered problems when they tried to log in. At about 12:30 p.m. ET, the site displayed an error message saying, "Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can."
A Facebook spokesperson told CBS News, "We're aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible." Service was back up within about 30 minutes.
But it didn't take long before hashtags #Facebookisdown and #Facebookdown were trending on Twitter.
Facebook going down for 15 minutes is proof that today's generation wouldve survived approximately 8 seconds in the 80s. #facebookdown
— Scott McClellan (@bamasevere) August 1, 2014Facebook is Down?! Oh God! Now How the Hell Am I Going to Find Out How My Friends Feel About Facebook Being Down?! #facebookdown
— Morty Coyle (@DJMortyCoyle) August 1, 2014Strange sighting outside right now: Kids are not glued to their phones anymore and they appear to be lost. #facebookdown
— Bryan Leeper (@b2theryan) August 1, 2014I can start to see loads of confused people coming out of their houses, squinting at the sun.. #FacebookDown
— Anthony Shaw (@AnthonyShaw_) August 1, 2014It wasn't a laughing matter for everyone. In Los Angeles, some people were apparently concerned enough to call the police:
#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up!
— Sgt. Brink (@LASDBrink) August 1, 2014Others saw an opportunity to poke fun at another widely known, but not widely used, social media site.
If Twitter and Facebook stopped working at the same time, most people STILL wouldn't use Google+ #facebookdown
— Cameron Yarde Jnr (@CameronYardeJnr) August 1, 2014You almost had to start using Google+ this morning.
#FacebookDown
— Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) August 1, 2014FB is down and the whole world has to figure out what network to use to complain about it. Still nobody heading to G+. #facebookdown
— The Queen ⚓ (@tqote) August 1, 2014Talk about a Flashback Friday -- MySpace even got a mention!
Good news... MySpace is still working!! #facebookdown
— Seth Fox (@SethFoxNYC) August 1, 2014