| James Kon |
SOCIAL media users worldwide, including those in Brunei, were left in a bind yesterday as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down for at least two hours.
The tech glitch, which began around 6.30pm local time according to Downdetector.com, resulted in users being unable to load their news feeds or send and receive messages on all three platforms.
The aftermath was a mishmash affair of anger, comedy and irony as Internet users took to Twitter to vent their frustrations on the outage and Mark Zuckerberg (the tech entrepreneur acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014).
“I was trying to send messages around 7pm but couldn’t get through,” lamented Jenny Lim, a local shop attendant.
“I also couldn’t receive any messages. I thought that there was something wrong with my phone. I tried to use Facebook to find out what happened and it didn’t load my news feed.
“I got to know what happened through a friend who called me after they couldn’t reach me on WhatsApp,” said Juma’at, another social media user from Brunei.
“The problem is quite a big deal, as more and more people depend on social media to get information and communicate with each other.”
The suffering of netizens was thankfully short-lived, as the apps resumed normal functions by 9pm.
