Comments for Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal Down at the Same Time! (Update)

Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal Down at the Same Time! (Update)

2009-08-06T14:32:49Z

For those of you addicted to social networking, Thursday morning is starting out pretty rough. The two biggest sites for updating your status - Twitter and Facebook - are both experiencing issues this morning. Twitter's outage started around 9 AM EST today, and while Facebook is up (somewhat), posting updates and wall comments is currently very flaky. And you can't even go vent about how this makes you feel over on your LiveJournal blog because - guess what? - it's down too.

Update: Twitter says they're fighting off a DDOS attack right now but the site is back up. LJ also says they're experiencing a DDOS attack.
]]> According to the Twitter status blog, a posting around 10 AM EST simply reads: "Site is down. We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly." However, Twitter Search appears to be functional and is somehow pulling in recent tweets, so obviously Twitter has not completely "failwhaled" for everyone.

To make matters worse, Facebook is also experiencing issues this morning, as many rebuffed Twitter users are now finding out when they go to post their status on the social networking site instead. The Facebook outage appears to be intermittent, though, and isn't affecting everyone. If you notice anything at all, it may be only that posting status updates and comments displays an error message. But simply clicking the post button again may force them through (at least that was my experience). The site also loads slowly at times and displays occasional "transport" errors.

Ironically, you can see several complaints on Twitter about this issue right now when doing a Twitter search with the keyword Facebook.

As a last resort, some users may turn to their LiveJournal blogs and attempt to update their mood to "sad" to reflect their feelings about this odd cyber-outage. Unfortunately, they'll be foiled there as well since LJ is down, too.

Some users are already spreading a rumor that this is some sort of social media attack by hackers, but it's more likely just a bizarre coincidence. Maybe the universe just wants us to actually get some work done today.

Update: The Facebook issues may be affecting comments which are integrated with the Facebook Connect system. I just attempted to post a comment here on RWW and it seemed to get stuck when the Facebook Connect window appeared. However, clicking the "X" to close the window allowed the comment go through.

Update 2: LJ came back up around 10:45 EST. Facebook is still flaky and Twitter is still down.

Update 3: Twitter just updated that they're defending themselves against a denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. Could this be the issue for the other sites, too? (10 AM EST)

Update 4: Twitter reports the site is back up, but they are still fighting off the DDOS attack. (approx. 10:55 AM EST). However, despite what the post says, the site is not back up for some people. You can keep tabs on the extent of Twitter's downtime here.

Update 5: Popular Twitter bot Breaking News On has turned to FriendFeed to post updates about this issue.

Update 6: LiveJournal also says they were hit by a DDOS attack.
Update 7: Wow, this is bad. Facebook developers reported a loss of as much as 75% of their traffic today due to timeouts. Check out http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?tab=updates and http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=39155 for more details. Facebook also confirmed they were under a DDOS attack.

Comment from Baby Cribs on 2010-09-18

2010-09-19T03:30:46Z

What are the chances that all of them would go down at the same time? It was amazing how many people though the world had ended when this occurred.

Comment from Testking 70-294 on 2010-07-23

2010-07-23T07:54:05Z

The Facebook outage appears to be intermittent, though, and isn't affecting everyone. If you notice anything at all,

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2009-11-29T23:54:29Z

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2009-09-05T02:35:08Z

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2009-08-31T07:37:34Z

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2009-08-31T07:23:21Z

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2009-08-27T07:29:51Z

I hope they can get it back online soon.

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2009-08-27T07:28:41Z

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2009-08-20T06:35:30Z

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2009-08-18T08:50:25Z

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2009-08-17T09:38:15Z

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Comment from tim on 2009-08-13

2009-08-14T00:52:08Z

Still no luck in Singapore and Malaysia : ( Facebook still down.

Comment from water meter on 2009-08-11

2009-08-11T07:22:49Z

I hope they can get it back online soon.

Comment from Facebook Connect on 2009-08-10

2009-08-10T10:20:59Z

Yes, This is also happen with me. And i thought this was my connection problem but no, that was really a website problem. Thanks for info

Comment from Cool Springs on 2009-08-09

2009-08-09T15:53:04Z

What is the world to do? Its sad how much people seem to be lost when these social media websites go down. Everyone I talked to in Cool Springs didnt even know anything had happened. Goes to show you how "critical" these services are.

Todd

Comment from Matthew Leung on 2009-08-08

2009-08-09T06:17:39Z

Frustrating...I can't even log on

Comment from https://me.yahoo.com/a/CWag5WoPq8psP3LcBFri4DgqJOWrJTUI#4f248 on 2009-08-08

2009-08-09T04:45:02Z

In western South Dakota LJ was down for over 24 hours for us. The heck of this is, we didn't know if it was a problem with our software (I started by thinking it was Foxfire, or my firewall, but then IE, Safari, Google Chrome, and Netscape didn't work either, and changing the firewall to "allow LJ.com" didn't help either), or if it was a problem with either our provider because of timeouts (one fix I googled suggested that) or a problem with our hardware -- but then a friend brought over her laptop and couldn't get on either. None of the little polite messages that come up with the 404 error really helped -- IE's was the best, it said "repair network connection" then connection "couldn't be fixed, try again?" then "LJ server couldn't connect, the ping was not returned" or words to that effect, letting you know that the problem was really with LJ. Everything else implied it was with your own hard/software.

Comment from Sera on 2009-08-08

2009-08-09T01:07:08Z

LJ is up for me! w00t! I don't know how long it will last, but I've been on for an hour or so now and it all looks good again. Let's hope it's back for good.

Comment from Laura on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T23:49:54Z

I live in North Jersey, and I've only been able to access LJ through a proxy. Otherwise, it's hopeless.

Comment from Meg on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T23:16:27Z

I live in Eastern PA and I haven't been able to log into LJ for 24 hours now but friends who live 15 minutes north are having no problems. Its really strange. I hope they can get it back online soon.

Comment from Zuzana on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T22:13:05Z

I've been getting email notifications from LJ but haven't been able to actually access LJ the whole day. How weird.

Comment from ShelaghC on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T21:49:18Z

Odd - many of my friends have had no trouble connecting to LJ but I've been cut off for over 24 hours now.

Comment from doctor_robot_buh on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T21:02:51Z

It must be a lone wolf acting totally alone in alone-town by himself from his aloneness cave. He must hate insert(pet_ideology). He must also hate babies and dogs. Loner!

Comment from Joker on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T20:55:07Z

If some one was to maybe read some online information they would know that all of the sites were Cyber attacked but i guess that's too much work for some people who much rather talk out there ass

Comment from Sasha on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T20:28:07Z

I'm in the New York city area and LJ is still unavailable, but it looks like my friends in the Bronx and Brooklyn can log in and out but not post. Good lord I wonder how long this is going to take to fix

Comment from Alicia on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T20:23:17Z

I'm in South Dakota, and LJ's been down since early yesterday morning. Keeps giving me 'network timeout' errors. Hope this gets sorted out soon.

Comment from nagashiwa on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T20:08:04Z

and now we even can get online there with a proxy..

XDD...

Comment from Amanda on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T19:55:13Z

I have a paid account as well, and would really like an extension if this problem isn't fixed soon.

Many of my friends on twitter have LJ as well and they seem to be able to log in and out.

Comment from sheryden on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T19:19:15Z

I'm in Ohio, and I still can't use LJ. I have a paid account, and I want to know whether or not they have a plan to fix this problem.

Comment from Nat on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T19:06:58Z

Lj is down for me as well. I'm in Greece, have no idea about my other friends. It was up until 5 hours ago.

Comment from Amanda on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T18:57:21Z

I still can't even load LJ at all.

Comment from Hello on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T18:39:23Z

I'm so bored of Livejournal not working

Comment from Michie on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T17:45:47Z

Still can't post anything on LJ ;_;

Comment from Jenny on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T17:26:37Z

Im in the UK and Livejournal hasnt worked for me all day today :( x

Comment from Anna on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T17:23:01Z

Just thought I'd add that I live in New York and LJ has not worked for me since yesterday. I'm getting the message "connection interrupted".

Comment from clotheshorse on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T16:46:00Z

LiveJournal still isn't working. Which is really annoying.
In response to Alice's comment: like your friend, I also live in Europe and LJ hasn't loaded all day. Very irritating!

Comment from furriboots on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T14:54:06Z

Livejournal has not worked since yesterday afternoon (I am in Ontario, Canada) I know people in B.C. and Conneticut who are able to connect fine but my pages time out each time that I try.

Comment from nagashiwa on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T14:23:29Z

for me livejournal is still down.
but for a friend of me who does live in the same country livejournal is working o__O

I really hope they fix livejournal soon because I got layoutwork and mod work to do there -_-

Comment from Alice on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T13:51:33Z

Yeah, LJ seems to be down completely, but a friend of mine who lives in Europe says she hasn't been having any problems at all, as have neither of her friends.

Comment from James on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T12:42:50Z

Well it is clear tat Kremlin is behind this. As during the August 7th 208, Russia invaded Georgia. As many Georgians use Facebook and Live Journal and Twitter it is a coordinated attack to bring down those pages so their opinions are not heard.

Comment from katja on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T12:33:57Z

Lj is still completely down. I can't even get the page to load. It goes directly to the error page. All of my other friends have access. Am I the only one who it won't work for at all???

Comment from ta_vi on 2009-08-08

2009-08-08T11:12:27Z

LJ is still down for me. Completely down for about 12 hours already. Their status report(LiveJournal is up and working) is falsehood.

Comment from Sasha on 2009-08-07

2009-08-08T01:34:48Z

LJ is down again completely and has been for a large chunk of the day. Heard from the Vancouver Sun that it was European hackers trying to keep one guy from posting. Anyone else wondering how long it's gonna be till the servers are fully functioning?

Comment from Busted Keys on 2009-08-07

2009-08-07T20:03:26Z

those hackers did a good job. it really knocked out our access, especially Twitter, and i'm feeling the pinch in followers/traffic as well. i hope the Twitter geeks can come back with a patch!

Comment from Ken on 2009-08-07

2009-08-07T12:44:32Z

Last night on Facebook (for the first time ever) I was served up (fake) web pages telling me of possible viral activity and to click on the links on the page to download software to scan my system. I've been using Facebook for over 1 1/2 years and had never received a page like that before, so it appears that the hackers are up to something big.

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2009-08-07T06:30:03Z

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Comment from David Richter on 2009-08-06

2009-08-07T00:41:07Z

I was punching my keyboard all morning,Now i understand its not my computer's fault heheh
thanks for this Update!

Comment from Helen on 2009-08-06

2009-08-07T00:23:29Z

Guess what?

Facebook is down again ! It started with the usual problem of applications being slow to open and requests not opening. Then slam ! Facebook is now down.

Clearly issues have not been resolved.

Comment from mary on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T23:06:49Z

Today, 6 August 2009. I live in east coast canada and have't been able to sign into youtube or access the Gmail website since morning and it's 7pm right now.

Is anyone else having a problem with Google today?

Comment from James on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T20:28:20Z

Good news ..... for me anyways, the "missing" Page has returned and I notice the site response time is back to normal.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Life-of-Luxury/111478482361

Comment from Ed Borasky on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T20:07:07Z

It may be difficult to *defend* against a DDOS attack, but, like rebuilding the economy, we can *all* do our part to prevent them, and one corporation, Microsoft, can do a *lot*. Most DDOS attacks are deployed via botnets. A botnet is a collection of computers, almost always Windows PCs, that have been corrupted with malware and are controlled by people with malicious intent.

What can we all do? If your PC is a Windows PC, enable automatic security updates from Microsoft and install a high-quality Internet protection software package. Norton and McAfee are the two best known ones, but there are probably others. I run McAfee because I got it for free with my Comcast subscription. Enable automatic updates on your Internet protection package as well, and allow the regular scans to be done.

What can Microsoft do? Well, probably a lot, but at a bare minimum, a Windows PC connected to the Internet should check every hour or so with the security update center. If security updates are available, the user should be notified to save their work immediately. Once that's done, the updates should be downloaded and installed and the system rebooted immediately if necessary before *any* other Internet activity is allowed! In short, *mandatory* security updates before surfing, tweeting, chatting, checking the weather or actual productive computer use.

Is that harsh? Maybe ... but voluntary protections aren't working. The botnets are huge and growing. Governments may be able to slow them down, but they spread via unpatched Windows machines, and most users of corrupted PCs have no idea their machine is corrupted.

Comment from James on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T19:29:26Z

One of my Facebook Profile "Pages" is gone. Hope it's just a glitch with the Facebook problems this morning.

Comment from Troy Peterson on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T18:05:17Z

Wow... and I thought it was going to be a boring day today!

I heard something that there was supposed to be a 4chan organized attack in September, but maybe they decided to pull an early suprise?

Comment from Kelli on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:50:33Z

Very strange. I was able to sign in on FB from here to leave a comment but not directly from my computer. FB app. on i-Phone still seems to be working as well as ever.

Comment from Vampire Wars Fan on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:40:44Z

Facebook, still funky... can't play the Zinga Games either (tied into FB)... they load severely slow and most of the time they time out trying to load.

Comment from D Tate on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:37:25Z

Facebook won't load at all. Big bummer for us addicts!

Comment from Shawn on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:15:18Z

Not only is it affecting Facebooks commenting system, it seems to be affecting their application server. Various applications have not been able to load since the attacks began.

Comment from Neon Vincent on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:09:41Z

LiveJournal maintenance just posted that they were hit by a DDOS attack.

Wonderful World of DDoS
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_maintenance/125027.html

So that's both Twitter and LiveJournal. Now to wait for Facebook's story.

Comment from Dan on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T17:03:49Z

Headline should read:

"Twitter and Facebook Go Down: People Forced to Actually Work."

Comment from Scott on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T16:32:39Z

What's the world going to do...? i feel like a catastrophic event is occuring...nowhere to post

Comment from Todd on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T16:24:10Z

DDoS'ing Twitter is like beating up Ralph Wiggum.

Comment from Web Hosting Reviews on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T16:06:17Z

It's really outrageous knowing that all social networks are still down.But maybe,this is probably true!

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Comment from Ashley on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:54:47Z

oops, *activist

Comment from Ashley on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:50:47Z

I can't even get to the login page for either Twitter or Facebook. I'm at work now, so technically it shouldn't bother me... but I'm going crazy! For a while I wondered if it was some kind of hack-attack executed by a social sctivist, haha. I guess I'll just get back to work and cross my fingers.

Comment from TC on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:50:28Z

Facebook seems to be ok, but Twitter keeps timing out which is very aggravating. Guess it's time to take an early lunch. :-)

Comment from eng10 on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:47:23Z

the ddosing dudes are probably asking for money now =__=' they are trying to bulldoze the biggest social networking sites, wow.

Comment from Gibbous on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:43:45Z

Okay, so we have Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and Google's App Engine getting DDOS'ed. All at the same time FriendFeed reports this http://news.bnonews.com/sqnj.
Anyone else getting that creepy sinking feeling?

Comment from Matt on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:41:05Z

Interesting that Facebook and Twitter are under attack.. and yet myspace is doing fine. Me thinks Rupert Murdoch might be behind these outages. In case you don't know, Newscorp owns myspace.

Comment from Sarah Perez on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:39:42Z

@Erica: When you see the FB Connect window pop-up, hit the "X" - then the comment goes through. (I guess you figured that out though).

Comment from Sarah Perez on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:36:21Z

@Playstar: Wow, really? I see that App Engine has had some issues today, too: http://code.google.com/status/appengine

Comment from Erica on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:35:15Z

i tried to leave a comment, signing in through facebook and i cant even get the site up and its pissing me off

Comment from Playster.org on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:31:02Z

http://www.playster.org - We've had intermittent outages all morning. We're on Google's App Engine. If this was a DDoS they may have been targeting Google as well.

Comment from Mike Russell - @planetrussell on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:29:53Z

To their credit, the Breaking News account on FriendFeed is providing semi-timely updates on the ongoing Twitter outage: http://friendfeed.com/breakingnewson

Comment from Nicole on 2009-08-06

2009-08-06T15:23:33Z

twitter is still down. FB is still acting up. It's a Myspace attack. No doubt about it.