Illustration of Meta Meltdown: Facebook and Instagram Users Hit by Widespread Outage

Meta Meltdown: Facebook and Instagram Users Hit by Widespread Outage

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Update: As of 4:45 p.m. ET, the situation regarding the widespread outages affecting Meta’s platforms appears to be mostly resolved. A small percentage of users are still reporting issues, but there has been no official statement regarding the cause of these disruptions.

On Wednesday afternoon, an extensive outage impacted users of Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta-owned platforms. Starting around 12:30 p.m. ET, reports commenced about difficulties accessing these services. The outage tracking website, downdetector.com, recorded over 100,000 reports of Facebook outages by 1:00 p.m., while Instagram saw more than 65,000 outage reports during the same timeframe.

The disruption was so significant that it also impacted Meta’s homepage, where visitors were greeted with a “Sorry, something went wrong” message by 2:00 p.m. ET.

During this downtime, Meta confirmed via the competing platform, X, that they were aware of the issues and were working diligently to restore service, although they did not provide any information on the underlying cause.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, other Meta services such as Threads, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus experienced problems, indicating a widespread issue across the platform’s offerings. Interestingly, TikTok, which is not affiliated with Meta, also registered a spike in outages around the same time, though these were less prevalent.

By 3:30 p.m. ET, reports of outages began to decline significantly. However, at that time, over 10,000 users continued to report problems with Facebook, and nearly 20,000 still faced issues with Instagram. Unfortunately, Meta has not released further updates regarding the cause or resolution of the outage on their official channels since their initial acknowledgment.

With many users now able to access their accounts again, it’s a reminder of the reliance many people have on social media platforms and the importance of quick communication from service providers during service disruptions. Looking ahead, it is hoped that Meta will offer more transparency regarding such outages to restore user confidence and ensure a smoother experience in the future.

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