WhatsApp Down: Twitter Flooded with Funny Memes as Users Head to X

WhatsApp experienced a significant global outage, impacting users in various countries, including India. Many users reported that they were unable to access the Meta-owned messaging platform, facing issues ranging from sending messages to logging in. DownDetector, a service that monitors service outages, confirmed the problem by compiling error reports and status updates submitted by users.

Around 9:20 PM, more than 9,000 people reported that WhatsApp was inaccessible, according to DownDetector. While some struggled to get the app to work, others took to social media, particularly X, to share jokes and memes related to the service outage. Humorous posts, sometimes alluding to Mark Zuckerberg, quickly flooded the platform, creating a viral phenomenon in response to the disruption.

Among the highlighted memes were phrases like “Stop toggling airplane mode and refreshing WhatsApp. It's not your network, WhatsApp is down,” “WhatsApp is down, X is working,” and “Everyone is heading to X to find out if WhatsApp is down.” Users felt the urge to rush to X to confirm their issues with WhatsApp, with one joking, "Stop toggling airplane mode and refreshing WhatsApp. It's not your network—WhatsApp is down."

This interruption on WhatsApp comes shortly after a recent disruption on the workplace communication platform Slack, where thousands of users also reported connectivity issues. The Slack team acknowledged the problem and was investigating issues related to API endpoints, message delivery, and thread loading.

It’s worth mentioning that WhatsApp had introduced new features last month, including camera effects, sticker packs, selfie stickers, and quicker reaction options, enhancing the user experience just before the service outage. These changes aimed to make it easier for users to creatively edit photos to share in chats, as well as to share entire sticker packs, streamlining the sending of customized sticker collections to friends and family.