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AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof

WhatsApp apologises after 'server issues' affect millions worldwide

The messaging service was bough by Facebook for $16 billion last week.

WHATSAPP HAS APOLOGISED after an outage in the service affected customers worldwide, mere days after the messaging service was bought by Facebook for $16 billion.

Users in Ireland were among those who were unable to connect to WhatsApp, with the outage beginning at around 8pm and services returning to normal about 2.5 hours later.

On the WhatsApp Status twitter account, the company blamed service issues and apologised to its 450 million customers worldwide.

image

(Twitter/ WhatsApp Status)

The fact that the the outage occurred days after Facebook’s purchase of the company, led to many on Twitter blaming the world’s biggest social network for the problem, #RIPWhatsAPP was trending worldwide last night for a period.

It has also been speculated that the publicity from Facebook’s purchase may have led to such an increased amount of WhatsApp downloads that the company’s servers were unable to cope.

Service outages are common for rapidly growing technology companies, and the WhatsApp Status account has tweeted about an outage about once a month going back through May.

WhatsApp, launched in 2009, has 450 million users globally. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has predicted it will reach 1 billion in a few years.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Explainer: After WhatsApp, where do messaging apps go from here? >

Read: Facebook buys WhatsApp message service for $16 billion >

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15 Comments
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:05 PM

    The producers are bluffing the EU, Ireland is doing it right. Aldi and Lidl do this here too – you can see exactly where the fish was caught, how it was caught and even the scientific name of the kind of fish. It obviously doesn’t cost Aldi and Lidl huge amounts to respect customers enough to supply information.

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    Mute Cloud Jellies
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:48 AM

    New law! How about enforcing the old laws that would be a start.

    38
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    Mute Tommy_Bannon
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:25 AM

    Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
    This is why intelligent humans choose vegetarianism.

    20
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    Mute techman
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:08 PM

    @Tommy_Bannon: Closing the stable door after the horse was eaten , to be more precise

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    Mute Mick
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 1:21 PM

    Don’t forget there are plenty of intelligent people who eat meat too.

    19
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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:34 AM

    If you want to be healthy try cutting animal products from your diet. Processed meat that comes in a packet can’t be good for you. Either can milk from another animal that full of hormones and puss..

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    Mute Mick
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:52 PM

    European milk does not contain hormones or ‘puss’. Every delivery from every farm is checked for temperature, antibiotics, bacteria etc. So stop spreading downright lies about the food we produce.

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 2:05 PM

    @Mick: of course there’s hormones in milk. You do realise dairy cows are constantly impregnated to produce milk. Cows like women are full of hormones while pregnant and those naturally produced hormones go into their milk to help bulk up calves. Its not intended for human consumption.. If you’re happy drinking and eating another animals milk go ahead.. Each to their own i suppose

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    Mute Mick
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 2:24 PM

    I’m a dairy farmer myself. I understand completely the process works. What you are implying is false though. Natural, grass fed milk contains nothing untoward, we’ve been drinking milk for thousands of years. It’s when people start adding sugar and salt, E numbers and artificial chemical additives is when the trouble starts.

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 2:33 PM

    @Mick: Mick im not implying anything false. Cows milk is full of hormones, hormones that nature intends to help calves bulk up hundreds of pounds. It is not intended for children or adults to consume.

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    Mute Mick
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 4:42 PM

    The natural hormones in milk are not in unusual quantities to cause any harm in humans. The levels of protein, butterfat etc in the 6L+ of milk that a calf consumes are responsible for growth. Generations of Irish people have eaten beef, dairy, eggs etc without issue. Obesity has only become an issue in this country since the 70′s, due to the advent of cheap, highly processed foods, the likes of coca cola with 30g+ of sugar per serving.

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    Mute Philip King
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:12 PM

    @Cosmo Kramer: backtrack much?

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    Mute Niall Donnelly
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 1:04 PM

    What about products labelled as Irish but brought down from the Uk?

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 4:33 PM

    No mention of take always etc imposing their religious beliefs on you, if you buy a ham pizza at many hundred placed you may be served dyed turkey NOT ham because these people don’t have any respect for you, nor your freedom to eat what you choose. It is often written on menu boards but often it won’t; it is dishonest but not illegal make sure your ham is not turkey meat dyed pink a common practice these days but The EU respect our rights on these issues.

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    Mute Andrew Swaine
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    Apr 8th 2017, 12:20 PM

    Any particular reason a Lidl own-brand product was chosen to illustrate the story? Is there something we should be told?

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    Mute Maurice Dodd
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:34 PM

    Anybody .anywhere.here or abroad held accountable for putting shit into our food in the form of un regulated horse meat?anyone..

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