Facebook outage sparks social media panic

Social networking site Facebook went offline for many users around the world this morning, albeit for a brief 15 minute spell.

Many countries have been affected, including: Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Holland and Australia. The downtime has drawn massive attention from Twitter and other social media platforms, with many users expressing their comedic dismay.

The second most popular site on the internet is back up and running now, but let’s hope that this is a rare occurrence, especially as the crash also knocked all Facebook’s apps offline, including the new Slingshot app. Launched earlier this week, Slingshot is taking aim at the image sharing app Snapchat, boasting some seemingly similar features. This has been seen by many as a retaliatory move after the owners of Snapchat refused the $3 billion buyout proposal offered by Facebook late last year.

The social networking site has so far not commented on the outage.