WhatsApp blackout: no, your data was not depleted - it was Mark

Like millions around the world, I was thrust into panic on Monday when I couldn't access my WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram feeds. 

I don't know how many times I blamed my internet service provider for the inconvenience. Those guys have left me cursing more times than I care to count. 

Except yesterday it was the other guy, Mark (Zuckerberg). How dare he? I thought we were tight. 

After rebooting my phone and my wi-fi dongle, I realised that online streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube were working just fine. It was at this moment I logged on to Twitter, our saviour, and learnt that most people were panicking just as much as I was.

Not only that, but Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram among others and a global social media giant, had issued statements via the platform of their competitor, Twitter. 

There was a guy who tweeted WhatsApp and begged them to “take their time” as he needed a break from his girlfriend.

Others “manifested” a similar crash but for Outlook, Zoom, Teams and all other platforms we use to communicate with our employers: Good call!

A friend of mine who uses an ancient version of the iPhone was convinced Apple had disowned her. An angry EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu was not impressed. “Unacceptable,” he tweeted in response to an apology issued by the app.

I remember laughing my lungs out at someone who mocked him.

“You can't communicate with ground forces, you depend on an American app.” Can you blame the man? It's election time.

Facebook later issued a statement attributing the blackout to a change to its underlying internet infrastructure that co-ordinates the traffic between its data centres. This interrupted communications and other data centres, the company said. 

Here are some of the other struggles shared online: