Meta's Platforms Experience Major Outage: Facebook and Instagram Services Disrupted

Meta's platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday. According to the outage tracker Downdetector, around 500,000 Facebook users encountered difficulties logging in or accessing the site by mid-morning Eastern Time. Similarly, there were approximately 50,000 outage reports for Instagram and 10,000 for Facebook Messenger. However, within an hour of the outages starting, the number of reports had already started to decrease.

Some users experienced being logged out of their Facebook accounts. Others received notifications on Instagram indicating that there was an issue and their feeds could not be loaded.

Threads, Meta's rival to Elon Musk's X, also experienced a downtime. Users were greeted with a popup message saying "Something went wrong, please try again later" instead of their usual feed.

About 90 minutes after the first reports of the outage, less than 80,000 people were still experiencing problems with Facebook, as per Downdetector. The number of issues with Instagram and Messenger had also significantly decreased.

It's important to note that Downdetector only reflects the users who actively report problems, meaning that the actual number of affected users is probably higher.

On Tuesday, Meta's status page indicated significant issues affecting Facebook login and other parts of the platform.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged the problem, stating, "We know that people are facing difficulties in accessing our services. Rest assured, we are currently working on resolving this."

Major platform outages don't happen often, but when they do, they are usually caused by something harmless, like a problem with a software update. In 2021, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were down for almost six hours. The company reassured users that it was not because of any malicious activity.

Meta has not given any explanation for the outage that happened on Tuesday.

Many consumers are still thinking about recent service outages, especially after AT&T faced a network outage lasting almost 12 hours last month. During this time, many customers were unable to make calls, send texts, or use the internet on their mobile devices.

This article has been revised to include additional information and background context.

Editor's P/S:

This article highlights the significant impact of Meta's platform outage on Tuesday, affecting millions of users worldwide. The widespread disruption, particularly on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, underscores the reliance on these platforms for communication, social interaction, and business operations. It is alarming to consider the potential consequences if such outages were to persist for extended periods.

The lack of a clear explanation from Meta regarding the cause of the outage leaves users speculating. While major platform outages are infrequent, their recurrence raises concerns about the stability and resilience of these essential services. The recent AT&T network outage serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities in our interconnected digital infrastructure. It is crucial for Meta and other tech giants to prioritize maintaining the reliability and accessibility of their platforms, especially during times of crisis or emergencies.