The challenges of finding an alternative to Facebook Watch Now

Starting at about 8:00 AM EDT, Facebook began having issues displaying any new images. At about the same time, Facebook image-sharing network, Instagram and its communications program WhatsApp began having similar problems.

Facebook wouldn't admit to any problem for hours. In the meantime, users from around the globe are reporting issues on Twitter and DownDetector. While Facebook continues to run, people are primarily reporting that they're unable to upload or view images.

In a statement sent just before 4 PM EDT, a Facebook representative finally addressed the elephant on the internet: "During one of our routine maintenance operations, we triggered an issue that is making it difficult for some people to upload or send photos and videos. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience." No time has been given for a fix.

At first, when I encountered the problem, I was unable to upload new photographs. Now I find I'm unable to view many older images. I'm far from alone.

Instagram users are also struggling. Since Instagram is all about images, the site is essentially down.

WhatsApp users are in the same sinking boat. They too can't share photos or videos.

Several hours later Facebook Messenger users also started reporting similar problems.

In theory, all these social networks and messaging services are still on different platforms. In practice, clearly, they're at least all sharing media storage mechanisms since they're all suffering from the same kinds of problems.

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