Several Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, experienced a global outage for about two hours, causing confusion and concern for its billions of users.
Many of the social media platforms' users panicked and thought they were hacked (this author included) when they were suddenly logged out and could not log back in again.
#facebookdown
— CrookedLettaCrook (@Bad_Azz662) March 5, 2024
Me after trying to reset my password 25 times and still can't log back in bc I think my FB is getting hacked only to realize that FB and IG is down pic.twitter.com/B90AhQkmtg
According to Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, users started reporting issues around 11 a.m. ET.
Thousands of users suddenly reported problems logging in, refreshing their feeds, and using other features of the platforms.
Users worldwide are flocking to rival platform X to confirm the outage and complain, as memes about the unprecedented and sudden outage have already started circulating.
Facebook and instagram down
— Dr.Shaun🇵🇸 (@fiftysix56__) March 5, 2024
Meanwhile X :#instagramdown#facebookdown#MarkZuckerbergpic.twitter.com/mSE2cqprED
Meanwhile, X owner Elon Musk didn't waste the opportunity to poke fun at his major rival, writing, "If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working."
And of course, he didn't forget to post a meme of his own.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2024
Meta Just Released Instagram DM Updates
The downtime came just a day after Meta announced updates on Instagram’s direct messaging (DM) features, allowing up to 15 minutes for users to edit messages after being sent.
Other updated features include enabling the pinning of selected chats, turning read receipts on and off, saving stickers for easy access, allowing stickers, GIFs, videos, photos, and voice messages when replying to a message, and more personalized themes.
While the exact cause of the outage remains unknown, some reports suggest it might be related to a problem with Facebook's login system, rather than a cyberattack or Instagram’s latest updates.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone also went to X to apologize to inconvenienced users and announce that the "technical issue" has been resolved.
Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience. https://t.co/ybyyAZNAMn
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024
In October 2021, these platforms experienced a similar global outage, but it lasted for about six hours. It was attributed to “a faulty configuration change.”
There is no official word yet from Meta on the exact nature of the "technical issue" that caused this latest downtime.
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