Messaging app WhatsApp was starting to come back online at 2pm Pakistan time (0900 GMT) and the company said on Tuesday that the issue had been resolved after users around the world reported problems. Is.
At around 12:50 pm (0750 GMT), outage reporting site Downdetector showed that more than 68,000 users in the UK had reported problems with the app. 19,000 people in Singapore and 15,000 people in South Africa, Pakistan and other countries also reported problems.
A spokesperson for WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta Platforms, said, “We know that people experienced problems sending messages on WhatsApp today. We have resolved the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused. are.”
The company did not give a reason for the shutdown.
WhatsApp has become an important means of communication for households and businesses. When WhatsApp had an after-hours outage last October, it hurt trading in assets from cryptocurrencies to oil, before traders moved to alternative platforms like Telegram.
“This highlights the importance of large hosting companies that rely on single points of communication with companies and individuals directing data around the Internet,” said Jack Moore, a consultant at Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET.
“Many areas will inevitably be significantly affected as a result of this downtime, as well as a predictable financial hit. But learning from other recent significant times when the Internet has gone down, hopefully many people will have access to communications.” must be taught to access other forms of
WhatsApp’s latest outage came during the festive season in India — its biggest market by user count — when people use the platform more than usual to send season greetings.
Shares of WhatsApp parent MetaPlatforms fell 0.7 percent to $128.85 in premarket trading after the close.
The company did not send out any fresh updates as users in Asia, India and the UK started to see some connections come back online.
#whatsappdown was trending on Twitter, with over 142,000 tweets and hundreds of memes flooding the internet.
“Everyone who saw that #whatsapp is down took to Twitter to confirm,” said one Twitter user.
In the past, rival apps like Telegram, Snap or even Meta’s Instagram have seen temporary spikes in users when WhatsApp shuts down.
While WhatsApp has more than two billion monthly active users and has become a mainstay for messaging in most countries, Telegram has emerged as a challenger with around 700 million users.
