A 13-year-old is being blamed for the server failures on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. But was he really involved in the unrest?

New York – On Monday (October 4, 2021) there was a major disruption on several platforms of Facebook Group. In addition to Facebook, Instagram and . were also WhatsApp* Unreachable. first error Arrived at lunchtime and impressed not only Germany. Hours of downtime happened around the world.

After a night plagued by disruptions, the Facebook group’s online network seemed stable again the next morning. in one company blog post The official reason for the inconvenience was given. Accordingly, the failures should have been the result of miscommunication between different data centers. Also, one of the main routers in the group is said to have failed. So much for the official statement. However, different media had a different explanation for the disruption in the Facebook group. Several intelligence services spoke of a 13-year-old boy from China who is said to have managed to get into the security system of a US company. But is it true?

Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram hacked by 13-year-old: What’s the deal?

American news portal The Sun Reporters was one of the first news services to report on Sun Jisu. An October 6 Facebook post featured a picture of a 13-year-old Asian boy who is said to be responsible for a server failure of a billion-dollar company. The post states that Sun Jisoo managed to shut down all Facebook platforms for six hours. Sun Jisu is called “Hacker” there. The Sun Reporters named the international news agency Reuters as the source. Apart from The Sun Reporters, several other portals reported on the alleged hacker attack of the 13-year-old.

But a little Internet search reveals exactly what lies behind this reporting: a false report. A search on the back of the photo on Google Images proves that the photo was published on the Internet in early 2014. You can see the then 13-year-old Wang Zhengyang. According to media reports, he managed to break into the digital security system of his school at that time, which is why he was called a “hacker prodigy”. The boy shown is now said to be 20 years old.

The journalists’ references also speak against allegations of hacker attack on October 4. All reporting was based on the news portal Reuters news agency. However, she never reported about the mysterious 13-year-old Surya Jisu. Quite the contrary: When reporting server failures on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and the company, Reuters cited statements published by the group. (aa) * hna.de is an offer ippn.media