The outage that hit Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram has spurred countless conspiracy theories to what caused the platforms to cease operation for 1.5 hours.
Elon Musk’s X was flooded with conspiracy theories about what caused Facebook, Instagram and Messenger to cease operations for at least one and a half hours.
Many of the posts pointed to liberals attempting to stop Super Tuesday from taking place, but others believed it could have been Nikki Haley supporters due to the presidential candidate hosting ads on radio, print and television.
Others posted on X that the glitch happened because Taylor Swift told her some 200 million followers on Instagram to vote or was a result of underwater data cables being cut in the Red Sea.
Conspiracy theorists flocked to X to accuse Meta’s outage of ‘silencing’ them
Former President Donald Trump is going up against Republican candidate Nikki Haley in the Super Tuesday primaries to determine who will face off against President Joe Biden in November.
Super Tuesday voting is held in a majority of U.S. states including Vermont, Virginia, Alaska, Maine, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Meta’s social media platforms went down for roughly two hours, locking many users out of their accounts, people questioned if it was a ‘voting coincidence or conspiracy.’
The outage affected other countries including the UK, other parts of Europe, China, , and Mexico.
Posts claimed the outage was a way to give Nikki Haley an advantage over former President Donald Trump in the polls
A Facebook inside source told DailyMail.com that the company’s internal systems were down and may have led to Tuesday’s outage.
But the fact that it was a global outage didn’t stop American conspiracy theorists from rushing to claim it was a blatant attempt to stand in the way of their right to free speech.
‘Nationwide AT&T outage recently and now FB and Instagram experienced a worldwide outage… it’s not coincidental and is all planned,’ one person wrote on Facebook once they were able to get back into their account.
‘They keep warning about cyber attacks and possible EMP attacks. This is all a part of the New World Order coming soon,’ they added.
The New World Order is a conspiracy theory that the government has an agenda to create a totalitarian world power
For those who don’t know, the New World Order is a conspiracy theory that believes the government has an agenda to quietly create a totalitarian world power.
Other users clapped back at the ludicrous conspiracy theory, with one person writing on X: ‘This is stupid. WTF does Facebook or Instagram have to do with voting?
‘You show up and you vote (or mail in your ballot, in which case you’ve probably already voted).
‘They are unrelated. Everything’s not a grand conspiracy people. Calm down!’
Users accused Meta of trying to influence Super Tuesday’s outcome at the polls
Users on X accused Meta’s outage of trying to interfere in the presidential race, with another person writing: ‘Facebook and Instagram go down on Super Tuesday as @realDonaldTrump is destroying the polls.
‘It’s not even conspiracy anymore, they just do it right in front of our faces.’
Social media users are linking the Meta outage to AT&T’s outage on February 23, claiming the conspiracy extends to the phone company that left millions of people unable to make calls or send texts without WiFi.
People accused Taylor Swift of causing the outage and trying to influence people’s voting decisions
‘CONSPIRACY THEORY ! FB just experienced an outage/disruption on a TUESDAY. Some reports are saying that HACKERS are getting ready – PRACTICING – for upcoming elections also called SUPER TUESDAYS…… unconfirmed reports of course…….,’ one person wrote on Facebook.
They added: ‘In this DIGITAL / WI-FI / INTERNET age/Era, we always need to stay vigilant with our personal info/ data & personal safety. Stay Alert. Stay Safe. Stay Alive.’
Conspiracy theories ran rampant after the outage
An ongoing theory that Taylor Swift is pushing people to vote against Trump was exemplified after the outage, cementing people’s original belief that she is trying to influence the presidential election.
Swift posted a message on her story, telling people to head to the polls, saying ‘I want to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power.
‘If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.’
The outage reportedly occurred shortly after Swift’s post, and people accused the pop star of being against right-wing voters, saying she is ‘trapped in a debilitating mindset.’