The world’s leading messaging app, WhatsApp has suffered another major global outage a few weeks after a similar outage.
The social media platform completely stopped working around 8:00 am on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, leaving billions of users that depend on it stranded.
At the time of filling this report, the platform, owned by Meta is yet to release an official statement on the issue.
WhatsApp is the biggest chat platform in the world, with more than two billion monthly active users, and the third biggest social platform after Facebook and YouTube.
To work around this outage, many users have resorted to GB WhatsApp, a parody version of the app that is available on only Google Playstore.
Already, a hashtag #GBWhatsApp is already trending on Twitter as those who have GB WhatsApp installed on their phone are making jest at those using the official WhatsApp.
According to a user, FINEST 🇬🇭 🇳🇬 with the handle @Depy_divv, he tweeted “WhatsApp is down but GB WhatsApp is working like galamsey workers” 😂🔥
Another user, Bayo Otedola with the handle @mister_ade5 also tweeted the following “WhatsApp is down but GB WhatsApp is still working 😂😂”.
This latest outage is coming on the heels of a similar outage experience a few weeks ago on October 4, 2022, when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp suffered global outages.
The three apps are owned by Meta, an American company offering online social networking services that are heavily relied on by most Nigerians for social interactions.
All three apps stopped working shortly before 5.00 p.m. Nigerian time.
According to a report from Reuters, security experts tracking the situation said the outage could have been triggered by a configuration error, which could be the result of an internal mistake, though sabotage by an insider would be theoretically possible.
Although the report noted that an outside hack was viewed as less likely, a massive denial-of-service attack that could overwhelm one of the world’s most popular sites, on the other hand, would require either coordination among powerful criminal groups or a very innovative technique.
