Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.

L.A. Residents Call 911 Due to Facebook Outage

This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

911 calls “reporting” Facebook being down angers the L.A. County Sheriff’s Deparment.

Apparently, some Los Angeles residents deem social media site Facebook in such high regard that it being down is considered a cause to call the Country Sheriff’s Department and even 911 itself. And no, I’m not making this up. Early yesterday, Facebook went down, and while the service interruption was just a short while, that proved to be enough for some people to “report” this catastrophic event. It got so bad that Sgt. Burton Brink of the Crescenta Valley station had to tweet it out that it’s not the department’s concern saying, “#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don’t call us about it being down, we don’t know when FB will be back up!” In a following tweet, Sgt. Brink said that an unknown number of people even called 911 about the outage.

Facebook released a statement regarding the site’s downtime stating, “Facebook is currently experiencing an issue that is affecting all API and web surfaces. Our engineers detected the issue quickly and are working to resolve it ASAP. We’ll update shortly.”

Thankfully, Facebook was up just a short while later. Can you imagine if this lasted the entire day or even a week? Let’s hope people calling 911 or even law enforcement for trivial matters such as these doesn’t happen again, since the time wasted in answering these concerns can and should be spent on actual emergencies.

Source: Twitter via L.A. Times

Recommended Videos

The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.Ā Learn more about our Affiliate Policy