Bet it was located at irc.facebook.com ;)

Joking aside, I can see how an IRC network has potential to be used in these situations. Maybe FAMANG should work together to set something like this up. The problem is, a single IRC server is not fail safe, but a network of multiple servers would just see a netsplit, in which case users would switch servers.

Also, I remember back in the IRCnet days using simply telnet to connect to IRCnet just for fun and sending messages, so its a very easy protocol that can be understood in a global desaster scenario (just the PING replys where annoying in telnet).

I heard the same thing from my old coworker who is at FB currently. All of their internal DNS/logins are broken atm so nobody can reach the IRC server. I bet this will spur some internal changes at FB in terms of how to separate their DR systems in the case of an actual disaster.