Meta Suffers Outage, Leaving Facebook and Instagram Users Frustrated

In a major service disruption, Meta Suffers Outage, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday, leaving millions of users around the globe unable to access their accounts.

The issues began around 3:00 PM GMT, with users encountering difficulties logging in and receiving error messages like “session expired” or “unexpected error.” Both the mobile apps and desktop versions of the platforms were affected.

The outage quickly gained traction, with “Facebook” and “Instagram” trending on rival platform X (formerly Twitter) as users flocked to express their frustration and share memes.

According to DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, over 90,000 users reported issues with Facebook within 30 minutes of the initial reports. Instagram also saw a surge in complaints, with over 15,000 user reports.

Meta acknowledged the problem through their communications head, Andy Stone, who tweeted, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We’re working on this now.” While some Facebook users reported regaining access around 4:30 PM GMT, Instagram continued to experience issues for a longer period.

The specific cause of the outage remains undisclosed by Meta at this time. However, the incident highlights the dependence many users have on these platforms for communication and information, and the disruption such outages can cause.

While WhatsApp, another Meta-owned platform, appeared to be unaffected, the outage serves as a reminder of the interconnected nature of the tech landscape and the potential impact of such disruptions.