When Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for roughly six hours last month, what was an inconvenience or meme fodder for some was life-stopping for others.

For hundreds of millions around the world, these platforms ARE the internet. Faced with high data and device costs, many rely on mobile access to zero-rated (subsidised) products like Facebook and WhatsApp to get online. Outages like these mean being cut off from virtually everything.

Citizens in the Philippines were cut off from Covid-19 updates from the government.

Doctors in India struggled to coordinate schedules and share patient scans.

And families in Brazil were for hours disconnected from relatives receiving hospital care.

As more people have come to rely on these platforms for communication, so have more and more small businesses. Last month’s outage spelled disaster for those who earn their primary source of income from these tools.

As Soraia Lima, project manager at Publicis and professor of social networks at University of Sao Paulo, explains:

"Social media and instant messaging services are part of our daily lives. The pandemic even intensified this use, as we depend on them to communicate personally and professionally.”

Here we untangle what happens when a primary portal to connection goes offline — and what can be done in the future to prevent this loss of access.

Considering the solutions

Beyond the technical failure that led to the outage, two key reasons led to its tremendous impact: 1) the concentration of services in a single company and 2) the huge global footprint and impact of these services.

For years experts have warned that the increasing centralisation of power online among a few players would lead to problems like this. So what might be done about it?

Proponents of web decentralisation argue we need to distribute power online to increase competition and ensure there are fewer points of failure which increase the risk of major disruptions.

There are also some who say Meta needs to be broken up into smaller organisations, among them US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Though others — including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and Meta Vice President Nick Clegg — disagree. As a US-based company, that decision is primarily the consideration of US regulators.

We need to bring down the cost of data to give people more choice. Many people, particularly in the Global South, don’t have unlimited data and so experience the internet through a handful of zero-rated products. Driving down prices so that everyone has affordable meaningful connectivity would enable people to use the full web, give them access to more services and minimise the impact when a service goes down.  

For the same reason, initiatives to enable those on low-incomes to get online should provide access to the entire web — not just a limited selection of sites.    

Digital skills are key. Many of the business owners we spoke to said they relied on Facebook products because they’re easy to use, but would like to set up their own websites. Investing in digital skills and embedding training in school curricula can help more people to build online and create a more dynamic, less centralised web.