L.A. Residents Call 911 Due to Facebook Outage

[Alex Co]

L.A. Residents Call 911 Due to Facebook Outage

911 calls "reporting" Facebook being down angers the L.A. County Sheriff's Deparment.

Apparently, some Los Angeles residents deem social media site Facebook in such high regard that it being down is considered a cause to call the Country Sheriff's Department and even 911 itself. And no, I'm not making this up. Early yesterday, Facebook went down, and while the service interruption was just a short while, that proved to be enough for some people to "report" this catastrophic event. It got so bad that Sgt. Burton Brink of the Crescenta Valley station had to tweet it out that it's not the department's concern saying, "#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up!" In a following tweet, Sgt. Brink said that an unknown number of people even called 911 about the outage.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/statuses/495246980075900928]

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/statuses/495280729035530240]

Facebook released a statement regarding the site's downtime stating, "Facebook is currently experiencing an issue that is affecting all API and web surfaces. Our engineers detected the issue quickly and are working to resolve it ASAP. We'll update shortly."

Thankfully, Facebook was up just a short while later. Can you imagine if this lasted the entire day or even a week? Let's hope people calling 911 or even law enforcement for trivial matters such as these doesn't happen again, since the time wasted in answering these concerns can and should be spent on actual emergencies.

Source: L.A. Times [https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/statuses/495280729035530240]

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[AstaresPanda]

just amazed at how stupid people are. How can you not handle facebook being down you have to call 911, its not a fucking emergency.

 

[Zhukov]

I can just see next weeks headlines:

'Facebook Down for 48 Hours, Users Resorting to Cannibalism'.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I can just see next weeks headlines:

'Facebook Down for 48 Hours, Users Resorting to Cannibalism'.

Or even worse:

'Facebook Down for a week, Users Discover Neighbors'

 

[Parasondox]

Another contender for the "Retard of the year award 2014"

Facebook goes down and they call the police. And they say social media doesn't affect peoples lives too much.

 

[J Tyran]

Sigh, maybe that department should start badgering the state courts about having the power to issue on the spot fines for this kind of behaviour. Wastes less time than trying to prosecute them but sends a message that it won't be tolerated.

 

[Thyunda]

I think the real question is 'what did they want the sheriff's department to do about it?'

 

[Seraj33]

Sigh, maybe that department should start badgering the state courts about having the power to issue on the spot fines for this kind of behaviour. Wastes less time than trying to prosecute them but sends a message that it won't be tolerated.

I have always thought that prank/meaningless calls to any emergency line should be fined.

 

[SweetWarmIce]

I'm not sure if I should laugh, cry or both.

 

[Barbas]

Thanks, Los Angeles, but could you f**king not? Could you just f**king not for five f**king minutes???

Sgt Brink...that's a neat name. It's no Sgt Slaughter, but give it a few more false alarms and swatting pranks...

 

[Alex Co]

I think the real question is 'what did they want the sheriff's department to do about it?'

Maybe flip "teH Facebookz swItchz?!" xD Hahaha! Good question! Or maybe they're just reporting it since they think it's an emergency? Selfies are important to some, y'know.

 

[Nowhere Man]

What the hell is wrong with these people? Seriously. And anyone calling 911 should of been fined. They SHOULD know better and should be ashamed. *Should being the operative word. How out of touch with reality can one be?

At least we now know who'll be among the first to go in the event of a national meltdown. Unfuckingbelievable.

 

[omega 616]

Only yesterday, while I walked to the shops, was I thinking about over population and the kinds of people humanity is trying to save.

I mean I am sure these people who called the police to deal with facebook being down, are nice people (not bright but nice) but are these people aren't really productive ... they keep the economy going but they wont be remembered for anything and there are millions of these people, just clogging up cities.

Now, I'm not saying "lets go and kill these dumbs dumbs" but if the government passes a law that 30% of the population has to be culled, I vote for them!

 

[Something Amyss]

Fortunately, they had Twitter, so they could get this announcement out.

I can just see next weeks headlines:

'Facebook Down for 48 Hours, Users Resorting to Cannibalism'.

I wonder if they would call 911 for that.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't think this is quite as bad as these idiots:


Calling an emergency number to ask for the non-emergency number so that you don't have to call the emergency number is probably the most stupid of the bunch. But calling about a website being down for a short while is ridiculous. Could they not wait or did they have to post a meme picture right that second?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, isn't it the case that most calls to emergency services aren't about emergencies? This one isn't than more stupid than most, I fear.

But yeah, some people need to be introduce to a clue by four.

 

[Mydnyght]

(*buries face in hands*)
Jesus fuck.... Is there anything left that people won't call 911 for?

 

[PirateRose]

When we had the Black Forest Fire here in Colorado, I remember on the news seeing a woman chew a police office out for not updating Google maps so they can see their homes.

Now, I'm not saying "lets go and kill these dumbs dumbs" but if the government passes a law that 30% of the population has to be culled, I vote for them!

People who express these kind of thoughts always seem to think they would be protected from such a law. I often wonder what circumstances would make people believe they are protected, and I ultimately come to the conclusion this is just the kind of thinking that leads to Nazism and genocide. Hell, you are suggesting genocide.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

My initial reaction to this:

[http://s410.photobucket.com/user/canadiansaiyan/media/tumblr_inline_mqp6ygsmMl1qz4rgp_zps16a3c4d0.gif.html]
And here I thought I could never be surprised by how stupid people could be. *faceplam*