Facebook and Instagram Suffer Global Outage, Users Report Problems with Messenger and Threads
Both Facebook and Instagram are experiencing major outages this afternoon, leaving users around the world unable to access their accounts. Facebook Messenger and Threads, the messaging platforms associated with the social media giants, are also reportedly experiencing issues.
Users logging into Facebook and Instagram are being met with error messages, such as “session expired” or “unexpected error.” Downdetector, a platform that monitors internet outages, has registered over 160,000 reports of Facebook being down in the UK alone. Meanwhile, Instagram has seen over 40,000 reports.
Acknowledging the problem, Meta’s Communications Director Andy Stone tweeted, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.” According to Meta’s status page, the disruption has impacted the Facebook login process and certain areas of the platform, branding it a “major disruption.” However, the cause of the issue remains unknown.
Unsurprisingly, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has not yet commented on the situation. However, during a similar outage in 2021, after six hours of downtime, Zuckerberg assured users that the services would be restored, stating, “Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today — I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about.”
As of 4.24 pm, reports of the outage are gradually declining, indicating that services may be returning to normal. The previous significant outage occurred on October 5, 2021, when millions of users were unable to access the platforms for several hours.
With millions of people relying on Facebook and Instagram for communication, work, and entertainment, widespread outages caused inconvenience and frustration for users worldwide. Meta will undoubtedly face pressure to prevent future interruptions to its services, as the reliance on social media platforms continues to grow.
Analyst comment
Negative news. As an analyst, it is expected that the market will see a temporary impact due to the outages, leading to inconvenience for users. However, as the reports of the outage decline and services return to normal, the market is likely to stabilize in the short term. Meta will face pressure to enhance its services and prevent future interruptions.
