Facebook said on Friday that due to system limitations, users around the world could not access its services again within a few hours, also a few days after the massive outage. “We sincerely apologize to anyone who has been able to access our products in the past few hours,” a Facebook spokesperson told AFP at 21:30 GMT.

“We have solved this problem, and everything should stop now.” Three hours ago, the Trouble Tracker DownDector website reported that there has been an increase in reports of problems starting and using Facebook and its photo-centric Instagram network, as well as Messenger and WhatsApp.

Facebook attributed this problem to the configuration changes of its computing platform, saying it affected social networks and users of Instagram, Messenger and global workplaces. People huddled on Twitter to express their frustration. “What happened on Instagram?” Read a tweet with a picture of the cartoon character Bart Simpson sitting in the corner with empty sentences. “In less than 4 days, it dropped again.” “Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp have problems again!” Read the lament in the DownDector chat forum.

On Monday, billions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp for more than six hours, highlighting the world’s reliance on platforms owned by Silicon Valley giants. In an apology blog post, Santosh Janardhan, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure, stated that “configuration changes” on routers, responsible for coordinating network traffic between data centers, caused trouble throughout the day. Network experts believe that the problem lies in the so-called BGP or Border Gateway Protocol-a system for selecting the fastest way to move information packets over the Internet.

Sami Slim of the data center company Telehouse likened BGP to the “Internet equivalent of air traffic control.” Just as air traffic controllers sometimes change flight schedules, “Facebook updated these routes,” Slim said. But this update has an obvious flaw. It’s not clear how and why this is happening, but Facebook’s router initially sent a message to the Internet saying that the company’s servers no longer exist. According to Facebook, the power outage on Friday has nothing to do with the power outage earlier this week.

Experts said that Facebook’s technical infrastructure is very dependent on its own system. Social media disruptions are not uncommon: According to website builder Toolster, Instagram alone has had more than 80 experiences in the United States in the past year. Facebook’s services are important to many businesses around the world, and Facebook accounts are often used to log in to other websites. Facebook’s apps are used by billions of my people every month, which means that power outages may affect a large part of the world’s population.

News Source : THE ANAND MARKET