Facebook vanished from the internet. Here’s how
A configuration change withdrew Facebook’s routes. DNS went with it, and so did its internal tools and door badges.
Yesterday Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp disappeared for about six hours. Facebook says a configuration change during maintenance withdrew the network routes (BGP) to its own data centres. Its DNS servers became unreachable, so the rest of the internet couldn’t even find facebook.com.
The painful part: Facebook’s internal tools ran on the same infrastructure. Engineers reportedly had trouble getting into buildings because badge systems were affected too.
Lessons any company can use:
- Can you fix things when your own systems are down? Out-of-band access, offline documentation, phone numbers on paper.
- Don’t host everything in one place, especially DNS, status pages and emergency communication.
- Network changes need a safe way back, such as automatic rollback if connectivity is lost.
And make sure your company can talk when WhatsApp is down. Many found out yesterday they couldn’t.