Published 3 July 2019
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
WhatsApp down: Media downloads affected in worldwide outage
WhatsApp is down and Instagram crashed today when Facebook experienced technical issues. Users worldwide are unable to send images, video or voice notes.
Users across the United Kingdom, Europe and parts of Africa are taking to Twitter to complain about not being able to load, send or receive content via WhatsApp, neither via the app, nor on the website version.
Text messages appear to work, at times, but voice notes, videos and photos do not go through. Instead, users get a ‘download failed’ message with a prompt to try again.
Pawan Lakeshar@iPawanLakesharAnd that’s the problem…#WhatsAppDown
Interestingly, the preview image does appear, but the image cannot be opened. And the preview appears fuzzy at the best of times.
Facebook acknowledged the problem
The issue was first noted when several hundred users logged complaints on the outage tracker Down Detector late Wednesday afternoon. Facebook confirmed to The Sun that they are attending to the issue:
Unfortunately, Facebook hasn’t revealed the exact cause of the outage. However, 82% of those who reported problems with Instagram said the issue was with the News Feed, 11% with the website, and 6% with log-in.
A possible explanation
While Facebook remains mum about the crash, Jane Manchun Wong shared some insight on Twitter. Wong, a technology blogger and app researcher, explained:
“Facebook image CDN is down, affecting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. ‘x-fb-response-reason: No server is available for the request.’”
She joked that “Facebook is under DDoS attack” according to a source, and added: “I highly suspect this cyberattack is state-sponsored [China flag emoji].”
Update: She has since deleted that tweet, and said instead: “No, China previously attacked Telegram. And now Facebook too. We Hong Kongers communicate with these platforms, making decentralized protests possible. Taking these down could negatively impact our communication.”
Jane Manchun Wong@wongmjaneFacebook image CDN is down, affecting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp
“x-fb-response-reason: No server is available for the request”
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram also experienced one of its longest outages in March, when users had trouble access the sites for up to two days.
One month later, Facebook and Instagram experienced a similar issue and failed to load; and messages couldn’t be sent or received on WhatsApp.
Facebook owns both WhatsApp and Instagram, in case you were wondering how it’s all connected. An issue that affects one Facebook service will have an impact on its other services as well.
A quick search on Is It Down Right Now showed that there is a “possible Service Disruption”.
