Hmmm. Facebook appears to have been down for several hours.

the1andonly3003

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
4,373
Chicago
Cyberattack? Revenge for the whistleblower coming out on 60 Minutes last night? Seems like all the anti-Facebook ppl are complaining the service is down.
 

Bergs

funky and cold
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Jul 22, 2005
21,613
All the DNS are gone. Someone might've fucked up while trying to delete evidence. This might be entertaining.
 

santadevil

wears depends
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Aug 1, 2006
6,472
Saskatchestan
Whatsapp being down too is wild... I wonder what's going in Europe now? Maybe people will finally switch to Signal or something.
This is the second time in a couple days someone has mentioned using Signal over WhatsApp
Care to enlighten me on the big differences, as the other guy I was chatting with was telling the his issue was with the new privacy something or other with WhatsApp
 
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SumnerH

Malt Liquor Picker
Dope
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Jul 18, 2005
31,893
Alexandria, VA
This is the second time in a couple days someone has mentioned using Signal over WhatsApp
Care to enlighten this guy on the big differences, as the other guy was telling the his issue was with the new privacy something or other with WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a closed-source app (so no independent security audits) that explicitly shares information with Facebook and has a history of big security holes. Facebook retains metadata, such as who called who when, even with respect to so-called private communications.

Signal is an open-source app, is the original developer of the encryption protocol they both use, has a reasonable privacy policy, and has a solid security track record. It does not retain metadata. It's been endorsed by the US Senate, the European Commission, the EFF, Bruce Schneier, and Edward Snowdon, and was what the DNC recommended for secure communications during the last election.

The NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Guardian all recommend Signal for anonymous tips (NYT and WaPo also mention WhatApp, with the caveat that Facebook retains information making it not really anonymous).
 

Marceline

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Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
Everyone should switch to Signal. I still have WhatsApp because I have people I talk to that haven't switched yet, but I've been encouraging them to do so.
 

Tangled Up In Red

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Nov 8, 2004
4,539
Bernal
One thing I can say is it kinda sucks when FB is down on your birthday (my S-i-L) or the day after you've won another championship [/humblebrag].
 

begranter

Couldn't get into a real school
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Jul 9, 2007
2,344
Everyone should switch to Signal. I still have WhatsApp because I have people I talk to that haven't switched yet, but I've been encouraging them to do so.
I only have whatsapp because my sister lives in Italy and that's what everyone in Europe uses in lieu of SMS. Unless there's some watershed moment where that changes, it sure feels like we're boxed in there. I can hope though!
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Mar 26, 2005
30,502
I was listening very briefly to a radio station that I don't usually listen to, and both a caller and the host thought that FB going down was possible retailiation against being investigated ("Coincidence? I think not") AND that the whistleblower was a fake.

I assume that other interweb places I don't visit have similar thoughts.

People are weird.