By Naadiya Adams

Millions of WhatsApp users across the globe have been left wondering what’s up with WhatsApp as the popular instant messaging service is seemingly down. Allegedly due to Facebook DNS records that have been wiped off global routing tables.

Users around the world are unable to send or receive text messages or make calls. Undoubtedly the world’s most used app, it is experiencing a server break affecting all three platforms under the Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook banner. Users have also been unable to access Instagram and Facebook as well, both on iPhone and Android devices.

WhatsApp has since acknowledged that some of their users have been affected by the outage.

We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience!

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) October 4, 2021

Brian Krebs, a cyber security expert who runs a popular blog says it looks as though Facebook had its DNS records taken from the global routing tables which in lay man’s terms means Facebook.com, Instagram.com and most likely their entire records have been wiped from the internet’s address book.

Confirmed: The DNS records that tell systems how to find https://t.co/qHzVq2Mr4E or https://t.co/JoIPxXI9GI got withdrawn this morning from the global routing tables. Can you imagine working at FB right now, when your email no longer works & all your internal FB-based tools fail?

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) October 4, 2021

With Facebook being as big as it is, it runs its own DNS, so whatever has happened had to have come from INSIDE Facebook.

#WhatsApp along with #Mark have been trending on Twitter since the problem arose and many have made light of the situation, as Twitter is not owned by Zuckerberg.

Mark zuckerberg Working so hard to fix the gad damn error ???????? #DeleteFacebook #WhatsApp #instagramdown #DeleteFacebook pic.twitter.com/qkqMKKq7ng

— TATAMIC ???????? (@HarithaOrugant1) October 4, 2021

WhatsApp and Instagram users trying to get access to their account

Mark zuckerberg: pic.twitter.com/HRKIJIUInx

— ? ???? (@YslBaby__) October 4, 2021

WhatsApp , Facebook and instagram’s servers are down own by (Mark Zuckerberg) So stop thinking that your internet is not working. #WhatsApp #Facebook pic.twitter.com/6HA01sWMqH

— Muhammad Mohsin (@mmohsinali12345) October 4, 2021

The problem is widespread with many South African users also being severely impacted.

Users may have noticed when they attempt to send texts they will see a small clock icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the message, an indication that the text hasn’t left your device. WhatsApp uses a single tick to signify when your message has reached its servers. That turns into a double-tick when the text has travelled from the servers to your recipient’s smartphone. When those doubled-ticks turn blue, it means the recipient has opened WhatsApp and read the text message.