As social media notifications fell silent on Monday afternoon, when Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram experienced a six-hour outage, people in Malta found other ways to connect with friends and family or catch up with news and gossip.

The outage – described as “the very short term technological equivalent of the pandemic” – served as  “another wake-up call on our-over-reliance on centralised technology and the increasing need to explore decentralised or more transparent alternatives,” social media expert Alex Grech said.

It forced people to think outside the Facebook box and discover more reliable options.

“Alternatives to the Facebook family of apps do exist. Yesterday was the first time many people discovered that Signal can do pretty much everything that WhatsApp does and they won’t steal your data or make promises that they later fail to keep.

“You may wish to reconsider the maxim that there is never a free lunch,” Grech, a University of Malta lecturer in media and communications, said.

Commenting on social media (ironically) about the outage, some argued that the massive social media blackout made people well… “more social” as they were forced to lift their gaze from the screen, at least until they figured out what was going on.

The outage impacted social media services Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger that are used by more than 3.5 billion people around the globe.

Facebook, which owns all platforms, blamed an internal technical issue and said there was “no evidence that user data was compromised”.

The outage was a big social blow in Malta where Facebook remains the nation’s favourite social media platform, according to a recent survey conducted by Misco in association with the Ornate Group.

The study showed an increase in usage of Instagram and YouTube. 

Disrupting a routine

The timing of the outage, that started at around 5pm, meant it did not have a significant impact on businesses. But it did disrupt people’s post-work routines and rituals that include connecting with friends and family via WhatsApp or sifting through Facebook and Instagram for news and gossip. 

A meme of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg fixing a powercut.

As could be seen on various comments and posts, the outage had two major impacts after social media users got over the initial moment of panic that it was not just they who were disconnected from the entire world. 

Some scrambled to attach themselves to some other social platform with Twitter rising to the occasion.

Others decided to brave the “normal” world. One woman Tweeted that she ended up “stalking people’s Twitter” since  Facebook and Instagram were down.

Another man said in Malta everyone used these platforms.

“Business, Drs, Vets everything is Facebook or WhatsApp.  I could message my kids’ doctor at 2am and get an answer no problem. The country would stop to function if this went a week.”

Some reminded each other that the traditional SMS system was also an effective way of transmitting a written message. 

One person wrote: “Bit of a pain, I keep in touch with a lot of folk through Facebook and WhatsApp. I phone my dad in Malta on messenger, I don’t even know his proper phone number lol.”

Then there were those who used the digital silence as a sign to ponder on their life choices.

“The outage is doing the world a favour,” one person wrote while another said: “Social media. Makes you everything but social. Better named gossip media.”

Of course, there was no shortage of tongue-in-cheek remarks (and memes).

“With #facebookdown the level of insults in Malta is at an all-time low,” one person Tweeted while another said: “Hope FB gets fixed by tomorrow morning. Imagine the chaos if #Maltese ministers don’t get their daily dose of ‘bongu ministru’ (good morning minister) comments.” 

But while in Malta the outage pressed “pause” for social gossip and connection, Grech noted that in many places, like India, Facebook is the internet.

“The shutdown was tantamount to people forced to stop trading, politicians cut off from constituents. In Brazil, pharmacies stopped receiving prescription orders,” he noted.

“It also reminded us about the reliance (dare I say blind trust) we put in Facebook as an interface with the internet of things: the domino effect yesterday (Monday) was also about people finding they could not open doors, operate their smart TVs, control thermostats and other internet-connected devices.”