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SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook announced Thursday that it has repaired a technical error that resulted in long service failures on its various properties, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
The interruption lasted nearly 24 hours on some services and was the longest in Facebook's recent history. It was a telling reminder that even the most powerful Internet companies, using the best computer scientists and advanced technology, can still be paralyzed by human error.
"All major Web companies have multiple lines of defense, but an engineer's coding error can sometimes end up on thousands of computers and cause major errors," said Alex Stamos, a former senior manager. security at Facebook lecturer at Stanford University. "In other words, restarting something as complex as Facebook is very, very difficult."
A "server configuration change" on Wednesday had a cascading effect on the company's network, a Facebook spokesman said. This created a loop of problems that kept growing and that could not be solved immediately, according to a Facebook employee and a former Facebook employee, who spoke under the guise of anonymity because of the lack of privacy. they were not allowed to talk to reporters.
This small mistake has had great consequences. Instagram users could not see other profiles, WhatsApp users could not send messages, and news feeds from Facebook's main application were blank.
Downdetector, which compares to a weather forecast for the Internet, said it received 7.5 million reports of problems with Facebook apps. In comparison, In October, widespread problems on YouTube generated only 2.7 million reports. The volume drop detector partially measures service interruptions by counting reports from users with problems.
"Never before have we witnessed such a breakdown," said Tom Sanders, co-founder of Downdetector.
Early Thursday, Facebook was able to put back most of its systems online. The company is still trying to understand how this error has impacted its network. Facebook officials pointed out that the problem was not caused by hacking or cyberassault, such as a denial of service attack, which would hit servers with a wave of traffic that would prevent them from working. .
For years, Facebook has recruited engineers on the idea that they could publish in a few weeks a computer code that affects billions of people.
"I am always very pleased to see my work having a significant impact on the lives of so many people," said an employee on Facebook. "Careers" recruitment page.
But that also means that the mistake of a single employee can have far-reaching consequences, especially since Facebook is working on a recently detailed plan to consolidate the infrastructure of its "family of people." 39; applications. " The more a computer network becomes tightly woven, the more likely it is that a small technical problem can become a significant problem.
Facebook, like other giants of the internet, is proud to never be disconnected. This predictability has helped her become one of the world's most influential – and criticized – companies. It is estimated that over two billion people use one or more of its services daily.
As people increasingly depend on Facebook's services, chat with family and friends while doing their job, they have higher performance expectations, Sanders said. .
"Tolerance to downtime is decreasing and users are expecting more and more services to work perfectly 365 days a year," he said.
Although the incident has irritated many users, it has had more urgent consequences for businesses, such as advertising, that rely on Facebook's network to generate revenue.
Kieley Taylor, head of social networks at the advertising agency GroupM, said his company had not been able to access the Facebook system, which means that new advertising campaigns have been delayed.
"It's never a good day in the event of a breakdown," she said. "Fortunately, it was a relatively short period, but it was completely out."
His company was still trying to determine how many advertising campaigns had been affected. Ms. Taylor explained that since Facebook's advertising system works on a pay-as-you-go basis, GroupM would not need to charge Facebook for undelivered advertising campaigns.
GroupM redirected advertising to Google, YouTube and other websites, but said that Facebook was unique in scope given its size.
"Thanks to everyone on the platform, this digital marketing platform remains very powerful," said Taylor.
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