Maintenance error caused Facebook's 6-hour outage, company says

Facebook logo and stock graph are displayed through broken glass in this illustration taken October 4, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) -An error during routine maintenance on Facebook's network of data centers caused Monday's collapse of its global system for more than six hours, leading to a torrent of problems that delayed the repairs, the company said on Tuesday.

The outage was the largest that Downdetector, a web monitoring firm, said it had ever seen. It blocked access to apps for billions of users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, further intensifying weeks of scrutiny for the nearly $1 trillion company.