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WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook down with users complaining of outages

Facebook and its subsidiaries have tweeted statements confirming the outage.

LAST UPDATE | 4 Oct 2021

MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA platforms WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook are down – with users experiencing issues on the social media platforms.

The platforms confirmed on Twitter they are aware of issues and are working to resolve them.

According to web service monitoring platform DownDetector, thousands of people reported outages before 5pm.

Data on its website showed that almost 50,000 people had reported the outages on Facebook.

Most complaints cited issues with the website (72%), while others were linked to issues with the server connection and the app.

More than 60,000 had complained about WhatsApp, with 43% reporting issues with the app itself, while 28% cited the server connection and 28% relating to sending messages.

More than 30,000 Instagram users also had similar complaints, with 51% relating to the app, 26% over the server connection and 23% citing the website.

A graph on the DownDetector website showed a clear spike from after 4pm.

Users trying to access Facebook in affected areas have been greeted with the message: “Something went wrong. We’re working on it and we’ll get it fixed as soon as we can.”

“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said on Twitter.

In a tweet this evening, Whatsapp teams acknowledged the problem:

And following on from that, the team at Instagram also confirmed they were having issues:

Tweet by @Instagram Comms Instagram Comms / Twitter Instagram Comms / Twitter / Twitter

A Facebook company spokesperson said: “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products.

“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said in a tweet that he offers his “*sincere* apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now”.

“We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible,” he said.

With reporting by © – AFP, 2021 and Press Association

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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:16 PM

    Finally. A good news story :)

    1819
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    Mute ed w
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:20 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: indeed no loss.

    393
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    Mute Pat Casey
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:30 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: Revenge of the Donald.

    215
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    Mute seanieP
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    Oct 4th 2021, 9:20 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: my missus had the candles out around the house as if it was a power outage.

    66
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:44 PM

    Mam, if you’re reading this, stick on the dinner will you!

    1466
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:47 PM

    @This time its personable!: Oh I’ll stick the dinner on alright.

    102
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:48 PM

    @UK Hurling Bloke: ya dirty hoor

    95
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:55 PM

    @This time its personable!: Nice of you to collect her from the hospital. Some fellas do nothing for their ol’ mam

    32
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:14 PM

    @Vonvonic: Well it was pure lucky really she managed to flag me down while she was thumbing a lift.

    100
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:18 PM

    @This time its personable!: No need to be modest. She’d want up her game towards the end of the week.

    23
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:30 PM

    @Vonvonic: that she would, we’ve a couple of walls need building before we move the ewes so she better have that done after all this lazy time she is having, nearly as bad as that time in 1996 when she went to her sisters ‘for a break’ she said!

    55
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:28 PM

    @This time its personable!: For anyone concerned she wasn’t reading it, I haven’t eaten yet!

    68
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    Mute Sarah Lou
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:16 PM

    The peace is lovely….might delete the app!

    355
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    Mute John Clair
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:34 PM

    OMG! How are the teenagers of the world going to survive for the next 17minutes and 32 seconds

    332
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    Mute john doe
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:04 PM

    @John Clair: Tiktok

    219
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    Mute Realist
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:46 PM

    @John Clair: teenagers don’t use much of the above apps anymore!!

    232
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    Mute Chris Dalton
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:39 PM

    @John Clair: I guess they are gonna have to turn into grumpy old moaners and post on the journal.

    33
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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Oct 5th 2021, 7:49 AM

    @John Clair: FB to a teen is like a P&T phone box with a roundy dial. As irrelevant as a third ball.

    1
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    Mute Mark Railton
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:09 PM

    Also seems Vodafone is down across the country. No home internet at all

    294
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    Mute pkunzip doom2.zip
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:22 PM

    @Mark Railton: no mobile data in swords on vodafone mobile

    98
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    Mute Chris Dalton
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:53 PM

    @Mark Railton: Tesco mobile (Vodafone) problems all day.

    On another note. What do people think of the pandora papers and the Irish involvement…

    25
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    Mute Colin Heffernan
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    Oct 4th 2021, 11:02 PM

    @Chris Dalton: it’s a Pandora’s box

    9
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    Mute Michael Gantly
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    Oct 4th 2021, 11:24 PM

    @pkunzip doom2.zip: nor in Navan!

    1
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    Mute Robert Nash
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    Oct 5th 2021, 1:05 AM

    @Chris Dalton: Tesco mobile use Three network.

    7
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    Mute The Exhibition Guy - Stephan Murtagh
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:35 PM

    Would be even better news if the Facebook one is a permanent outage…

    181
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    Mute JustMeHere
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    Oct 4th 2021, 9:04 PM

    @The Exhibition Guy – Stephan Murtagh: Why?

    16
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    Mute matthew mc manus
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:19 PM

    Off I go to get toilet roll so.

    260
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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:20 PM

    @matthew mc manus: genius

    51
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    Mute Ciaran O 'Reilly
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:30 PM

    Hopefully it stays down

    156
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    Mute Togs
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:58 PM

    Wudnt it be great to go back to the Nokia 5110 era… Smart phones are a nuisance..

    176
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    Mute Ajax Penumbra
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:39 PM

    @Togs: Nobody stopping you from doing so, kid.

    110
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    Mute Tedburns
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:42 PM

    @Togs: eh, no

    19
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    Mute Togs
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:31 PM

    @Ajax Penumbra: the poxy WhatsApp groups are stopping me.. Sure you’d be out of the loop altogether without them cvntin things..

    29
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    Mute pkunzip doom2.zip
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:25 PM

    @Togs: there’s a Nokia flip phone out with minimal smart features, it’s WhatsApp but with limited features

    10
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    Mute Nicole
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:34 PM

    The next two weeks are crucial

    144
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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Oct 5th 2021, 3:54 AM

    @Nicole: flatten the curve

    5
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    Mute
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:19 PM

    Electricity blackout at the data centre or somebody pulled the wrong plug :-)

    123
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    Mute Contrary Mary
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    Oct 5th 2021, 6:15 AM

    Somehow, a large chunk of routing code went missing.

    1
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    Mute Peazel
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:16 PM

    It’s the Russians!

    111
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:37 PM

    @Peazel: Nah. This feel alot more like Lex Luther’s m.o. to me.

    33
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    Mute Joe_X
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:46 PM

    @Vonvonic: Don’t think so… .Any one seen or know where Eamon Ryan is at the moment?

    71
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:20 PM

    @Joe_X: In the Gotham asylum.. couldn’t be him… or could it?

    9
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    Mute Joe_X
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    Oct 4th 2021, 9:14 PM

    @Vonvonic: I heard he escaped. Major headlines at the time: “THE GREEN BUZZKILL ESCAPES: DIFFICULT WINTERS AHEAD THREATENED”

    11
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    Mute Mick Dunne
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    Oct 4th 2021, 11:10 PM

    @Peazel: where is your proof.

    2
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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:15 PM

    Yep, my facebook messenger and whatsapp are not sending or receiving messages.

    88
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    Mute Miriam
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:52 PM

    @neuromancer: maybe that’s due to the outage

    485
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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:08 PM

    @Miriam: well I didn’t know there was an outage, so that outage would explain why nothing was working.

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    Mute OnlyHereForTheComments
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:20 PM

    @neuromancer: I’d say once they fix the outage you’ll be fine

    131
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:28 PM

    @OnlyHereForTheComments: you mean the Facebook and whatapp will be fine, not sure about the rest!

    19
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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:34 PM

    @neuromancer: Try reading something besides the Journal.

    19
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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:06 PM

    @OnlyHereForTheComments: I was half thinking that myself.

    8
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    Mute Jonathan
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:44 PM

    Vodafone down too, claim it’s related

    79
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    Mute New Irish Art
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:39 PM

    I guess this must be put down to the impact of The Journal having run a couple of items about FB today.

    55
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    Mute Vonvonic
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:41 PM

    @New Irish Art:
    Will we switch it back on Mark?
    Nah, let em sweat.

    40
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    Mute Sean Fallon
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:33 PM

    The new normal :)

    52
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    Mute Hank Schrader
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:05 PM

    Not enough wind in Ireland today..

    50
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    Mute
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:47 PM

    @Hank Schrader: Russians meddling with the undersea cables again seems like Sergei has severed the cable totally this time.

    19
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    Mute Rostyballs78
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:59 PM

    Somebody pulled out the wrong plug to charge their phone and won’t admit it.

    47
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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:09 PM

    @Rostyballs78: yes because all 3 are plugged into the same socket

    27
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    Mute This time its personable!
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:27 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: don’t be so silly, it’s obviously an extension lead multi socket to cover across all three!

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    Mute Rostyballs78
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:29 PM

    @Ger Cassidy: imagine they were. Be like something out of National Lampoons Christmas or something. 3 of the biggest social media sites in existence all on the same adapter in some dudes basement in California

    32
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    Mute The only INFP in Ireland
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    Oct 4th 2021, 7:37 PM

    @Rostyballs78: Well he’s got a plug for Vodafone there too then

    25
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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:16 PM

    @This time its personable!: ah. That explains it. Thanks :)

    3
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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:17 PM

    @This time its personable!: how does this tie into the chocolate conspiracy?

    4
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    Mute caelan
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:18 PM

    Them data centres can’t do anything right

    51
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    Mute Claude Saulnier
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    Oct 4th 2021, 9:16 PM

    I hope no one dies from the outage. Don’t worry if you don’t meet your quota of likes, you should recover eventually.

    48
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    Mute
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    Oct 4th 2021, 6:24 PM

    No loss

    38
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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:43 PM

    My thoughts and prayers – we’re all in this together!

    26
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    Mute OConnelj
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:51 PM

    Just send a text instead.

    26
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    Mute ChadChaderson
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    Oct 4th 2021, 8:31 PM

    I’m not paying for this service to have an outage

    23
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    Mute Niall Carry
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    Oct 4th 2021, 11:26 PM

    Did they try to turn it all off and on again?

    22
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    Mute Shane Terry
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:55 PM

    If your not paying for it you are the product!!!

    22
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    Mute coastal views
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    Oct 4th 2021, 5:23 PM

    Fuseek Facebook

    18
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    Mute Martin O'Regan
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:44 PM

    Just show me the sense of entitlement when people are complaining because services they get FOR FREE go down… They’re probably the same attention seekers who post things like.. “anyone know the number for the caredoc?”

    13
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    Mute Martin O'Regan
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    Oct 4th 2021, 10:46 PM

    Just shows the sense of entitlement when people are complaining because services they get FOR FREE go down… They’re probably the same attention seekers who post things like.. “anyone know the number for the caredoc?”

    9
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    Mute Todd Unctuous
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    Oct 4th 2021, 11:16 PM

    It’s the guy from the bar

    9
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    Mute Maggie Barcoe
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    Oct 5th 2021, 7:24 AM

    I walked a bit yesterday and had pasta bake for dinner. Not being able to share that on Facebook was hard!!

    3
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    Mute John Quill
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    Oct 5th 2021, 7:23 AM

    I haven’t been able to post a pretensions photo of my family or food in almost 4 hrs !

    2
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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Oct 5th 2021, 11:38 AM

    If you or your family were affected by the Social Media outages you can contact the Samaritans at the following……

    1
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    Mute Dorothy Kavanagh
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    Oct 5th 2021, 12:30 AM

    Everything is slow

    1
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