Twitter Has Been Down for 2.5 Hours, Will We Survive?

by John P.

Twitter-Over-CapacitySo, for those of you who don’t know it, the world’s most popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter has been completely down for over two and a half hours so far today due to a Denial of Service attack.

Now, Twitter goes down pretty regularly. It’s difficult to scale up this rapidly for any business. But this is the first time that I can remember it being down for so long in a single block, especially in a critical part of the day. And it’s not just that they are serving up their standard “over capacity” message. The entire Web site has vanished!

I think the interesting thing about this is that it should emphasize how vulnerable we all are to relying on a single communication network with our contacts. It demonstrates why having multiple social systems is a good thing. If Twitter is down, one should be able to hop on FaceBook and stay in touch.


{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Lisa Marie Mary August 6, 2009 at 11:22 am

I’ve been on Facebook via Seesmic Desktop, but, I’ve actually had trouble logging in there, too. Not sure if that’s better yet. I’ve even buckled down and opened up FriendFeed – the one I don’t really like all that much.

Come back, Twitter!!! We need you!!!!!!!!!! :P

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2 ShaDow August 7, 2009 at 8:47 am

I`m not that much into twitter thou…so didnt effect me much ;)

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3 Nehh August 7, 2009 at 10:53 am

Neither did it affect me…but I agree with you relying on a single communication network can be problematic in situations like these.

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4 fas August 7, 2009 at 1:53 pm

Too many users on twitter? I dont think so, more of a security or backup exercise.

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5 Jac3q August 9, 2009 at 8:32 am

Facebook was being targeted at the same time. I use Skype as an IM service, and their status updates could also double up as a twitter or FB type status. We are actually far too reliant on technology. We suffered a power failure earlier this morning, and boy was I loast for the next 45 minutes!

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6 Aaron Hall August 10, 2009 at 12:25 pm

Twitter is increasingly important to international affairs. I agree with you that this reaffirms the need for various communications networks. This recent attack may be a job for the President’s new Cybersecurity Czar. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502104.html

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7 Aaron Hall August 17, 2009 at 9:45 am

Please note that the previous link to the Washington Post works if you remove the period from the end.

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