If you somehow managed to miss the global panic, then there was a worldwide six-hour outage on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp yesterday.
Facebook and its various subsidiaries went offline from around 4.30pm BST yesterday, and, as often is the case when such social media outages happen, it caused somewhat of a public meltdown, with people stripped of their first-choice forms of online communications and many users taking to Twitter to share their reactions.
Not long after the outage, theories began to circulate online about the source of the problem – with one viral tweet suggesting that a large section of the routing had been “deleted”.
Facebook did not provide an explanation as to what the problem was immediately after the platforms went down, however it did acknowledge the issue and apologised for the inconvenience it was causing users.
However, Facebook later shared a blog post to reveal the true cause of the issue.
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To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.
In the post titled ‘Update on the October 4th outage’, Facebook explained: “Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication.
“This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”
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The statement then assured users: “We want to make clear at this time we believe the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change.
“We also have no evidence that user data was compromised as a result of this downtime.”
The post said that all services were now back online, and that that Facebook is “continuing to actively work” to make sure they operated regularly.
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As our platforms are coming back online, we wanted to share some more information about today’s outage and what caused it. https://t.co/JkZnn2I37g
The company’s stocks dropped nearly 5% after the outage yesterday, compared to when it dropped around 15% in the middle of September, The Independent reports.
Facebook stressed how sorry it was to all who “rely” on it everyday and that an investigation would continue so that it could “understand more about what happened” in order to “make [their] infrastructure more resilient”.
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Simon Rimmer shuts final Greater Manchester branch of beloved Greens restaurant
Daisy Jackson
Simon Rimmer’s much-loved Greens restaurant is no more, as the final branch announces its immediate closure.
The vegetarian restaurant launched in Didsbury way back in 1990, but confirmed its shock closure at the start of its year.
The newer Greens restaurant in Sale had remained open for business – until today.
In a statement share online, the restaurant said the business has become ‘untenable’.
The statement, which was shared with a simple broken heart emoji, added that the team have ‘done everything possible’ to stay afloat.
Greens hasn’t shared as much detail about its Sale closure.
Simon Rimmer’s Greens restaurant in Sale has announced its immediate closure. Credit: The Manc Group
They wrote: “It is with deep regret that the board of directors and shareholders have decided to close the doors permanently on Greens Sale with immediate effect.
“We’ve done everything possible to make this work, but it is now clear the business is untenable.
“We’d like to thank everyone, team members & guests, who have been on the Greens journey with us.”
It’s another blow to the Manchester’s famous vegan and vegetarian restaurant scene, which has lost the likes of Wholesome Junkies, Vurger Co, and V Rev all shutting down in the last couple of years.
Wholesome Junkies shut down because of ‘skyrocketing costs’, writing at the time of their closure in July: “The figures just don’t add up, it’s no joke and it’s devastating the hospitality industry.”
Northern blocks access to dating apps and websites on-board trains
Emily Sergeant
Access to dating apps and websites is now blocked on-board trains travelling across the north, it has been revealed.
Northern says there’s “good reason” for taking this decision.
This is because the WiFi provided by the train operator on-board its services travelling across the north of England is delivered under the ‘Friendly WiFi’ scheme, which blocks access to certain categories of content – including those associated with dating.
Websites and apps related to video streaming, gambling, alcohol, adult content, pornography, and nudity are also blocked.
Northern has blocked access to dating apps and websites on-board its trains / Credit: Northern
The company says ‘Friendly WiFi’ – which it has been signed up to since 2017 – ensures its on-board internet service meets “minimum filtering standards” given the fact that children could be present around passengers at all times.
The decision to ban dating apps and websites comes after Northern also urged passengers to stop viewing content that’s “not suitable for work” on its trains and stations in Greater Manchester and beyond, and pleaded for them to “wait until you get home” instead.
Content that Northern considers ‘NSFW’ can range from inappropriate jokes and bad language, right through to offensive topics and explicit material.
The train operator has explained the “good reason” for its decision / Credit: Northern
Northern’s Chief Operating Officer, Matt Rice, said access to “safe and reliable” internet is part of passengers’ expectations.
“Whilst some dating websites and users will operate with appropriate levels of self-moderation, some might not and it’s important that content not suitable for everyone to see or hear, particularly children, isn’t viewed on our trains,” Mr Rice explained.
“It’s simply about ensuring that there is sufficient bandwidth for all our customers to use while they’re on the go.
The Manc -
5th October 2021 
