Facebook Shut Itself Down for 30 Minutes

Facebook closed its virtual doors to users for about 30 minutes yesterday, after the code for a handful of new products went public before those products had been rolled out, reports Wired. The 550-million-user site shut itself down between about 4:15 and 4:45pm ET. “For a brief period of time, some internal prototypes were made public to a number of people externally,” the site said.

The problem may have been with new features like “redesigned brand pages” and the “memories” photo section, noted Mashable. The site was vague on the details, but said it “had nothing to do with privacy or security.” Wired asks the big question: "Who makes the ultimate call to shut down a website with 550 million users? Who can push the kill switch?" (More Facebook stories.)