Facebook blames itself for massive 40-minute outage that brought world to its knees (update)

Updated: This post was updated at 1:20 a.m. Pacific Time to include a statement from Facebook.

The alert from the Associated Press buzzed across mobile devices everywhere, delivering the shattering news: “Facebook suffers outage affecting users worldwide.”

The social media apocalypse was here. Instagram was out, too, leaving teenagers confused and scared. Babies wept. Parents sought refuge in shelters they had built for a zombie outbreak or the eventual robot war.

And then, in the ultimate act of desperation, people turned to Twitter. In this moment of panic and despair, #facebookdown began to trend:

Meanwhile at Facebook HQ #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/gFhI32T4Qq

— 9GAG ❤️ Memeland (@9GAG) January 27, 2015

#facebookdown #facebook (Repost) pic.twitter.com/hSFK3Q1sfd

— extra3 (@extra3) January 27, 2015

How to survive Facebook going down: #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/5EYwEFGkWi

— Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) January 27, 2015

We learned some ugly truths.

I'm outside & I can't figure what filter this is, but it's not awesome. Trees look awful. Hope they didn't pay a lot for this. #facebookdown

— Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) January 27, 2015

Widespread global reports now of a phenomenon called 'talking to each other'. Horrible scenes. #facebookdown

— Sam (@_SamAlex) January 27, 2015

https://twitter.com/MaronzioVance/status/559973384516558848

Just had to call someone, open my mouth and speak actual words to wish them a Happy Birthday because #facebookdown :(

— Ripper (@Ace_Of_Pace) January 27, 2015

There will be a baby boom in 9 months. #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/SKtxoBwdZF

— Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) January 27, 2015

Some sought to take advantage of the moment…

#FacebookDown, but you needn't be. #GivesYouWings pic.twitter.com/JnVZuNkXdV

— Red Bull India (@redbullindia) January 27, 2015

what? #facebookdown? read a book for goodness sake! download for free from http://t.co/V7u30BwPhx try it… #LAPL pic.twitter.com/UkOiNiIqID

— L.A. Librarian ?? (@L_A_Librarian) January 27, 2015

But then, a light in the darkness…

.@facebook has returned. My preciousssss….#facebookdown pic.twitter.com/gTWDb0eVk6

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 27, 2015

After roughly 40 minute outage, #Facebook again accessible in US, Asia, other regions #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/gpxw8VL335

— DW News (@dwnews) January 27, 2015

And humanity sighed in relief, dusted itself off, and carried on…

https://twitter.com/natecochrane/status/559973102591807488

Update at 1:20 a.m.: Facebook released the following statement:

“Earlier this evening many people had trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram. This was not the result of a third party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems. We moved quickly to fix the problem, and both services are back to 100% for everyone.”