> The deeper concern with an outage like this isn't how many people switch to competitive services or how much money we lose, but what it means for the people w

> The deeper concern with an outage like this isn't how many people switch to competitive services or how much money we lose, but what it means for the people who rely on our services to communicate with loved ones, run their businesses, or support their communities. The messaging between Facebook and media outlets here is so consistent (Facebook's services are critical communications infrastructure, people get hurt when they can't use them) that I wonder whether Facebook was actively pushing that message during the outage to get media to focus on the impact on people's lives (such focus being overall positive for Facebook, by showing how important their services are to people) rather than the failure. I just don't buy it at all though. In terms of person-to-person communication, the friction of replacing Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram is insignificant. Where I live, Messenger and WhatsApp are the most popular chat apps by far, and are used for everything from personal communications to ordering food to business negotiations. During the outage, people didn't wring their hands and despair at not being able to communicate. They just used a different app.