LinkedIn, the popular platform for professionals, faced a major outage on Wednesday evening, leaving thousands of users in the dark. DownDetector, a service that monitors website outages, flagged the issue shortly after 3:45 PM ET. Both the mobile applications and website of LinkedIn were affected by the blackout, causing inconvenience to users worldwide.
Acknowledging the problem, LinkedIn posted on their status page at 4:04 PM ET, stating that some members might be experiencing issues. They assured users that they were actively working on resolving the problem and would provide updates as they became available. Fortunately, the disruption was short-lived, and services were restored by 5:05 PM ET. LinkedIn apologized for any inconvenience caused and thanked users for their patience.
This outage came closely after a massive outage affecting Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which lasted nearly two hours. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported a 2.2% decrease in Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth, the CEO of Meta, equating to a loss of nearly $3 billion.
It's not you, it's us. You may be experiencing issues when you try to visit LinkedIn. Our teams are working to resolve this and you can check for updates on our Status Page: https://t.co/JQdDeX7GJQ
— LinkedIn Help (@LinkedInHelp) March 6, 2024
The consecutive outages prompted a wave of memes and comments on social media platforms. Users humorously speculated about the significance of the outages, with one joking about a “trial run for the grid shutdown.” Another user lamented the inability to access LinkedIn, while others made light of the situation with witty remarks.
Some users even joked about the possibility of not needing a job due to LinkedIn being down, reflecting on the impact of the outage on job seekers. Others humorously pointed out the irony of relying on Twitter to check if LinkedIn was down, highlighting the interconnectedness of social media platforms.
Why did I just hear someone unemployed say “LinkedIn being down is sign I don’t need a job” bruh our economy is never getting better. #LinkedIn pic.twitter.com/0l28s79PPX
— RAMAN_JAISWAL (@RAMANJAISWAL03) March 7, 2024
Statistics from DownDetector revealed over 48,000 reports during the LinkedIn blackout, with the majority (70%) related to website issues and 28% concerning app functionality and profile access.
Microsoft, a tech giant, acquired LinkedIn in 2016, integrating the professional networking platform into its suite of services. Despite the brief disruption, LinkedIn users can now resume their professional networking activities, with services back up and running smoothly.
Comments