Global Outage Hits Facebook and Instagram Users; Meta Scrambles to Resolve Issues

Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday, affecting hundreds of thousands of users globally. The disruption, which began around 10:00 am ET, left users unable to access their accounts, prompting frustration across the platforms.

According to reports on Downdetector.com, over 300,000 users reported issues with Facebook, while Instagram saw around 40,000 outage reports. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged the problem, stating that they are actively working to address the technical difficulties.

Meta, which boasts a user base of approximately 3.19 billion across its suite of apps including WhatsApp and Threads, witnessed a 1.5% drop in its shares during the prolonged outage. The company’s status dashboard also indicated disruptions in the WhatsApp Business API.

While the impact on WhatsApp and Threads was relatively minor, with fewer than 200 incident reports each, the outage raised concerns among Meta employees. Some employees shared on the anonymous platform Blind that they were unable to access internal systems, leading to speculation about potential lay-offs.

The outage quickly became a trending topic on X, a social media platform owned by Elon Musk. Musk, known for his cheeky online presence, took a jab at Meta with a post noting the functionality of X’s servers amidst the disruption.

X itself has faced its share of service disruptions since Musk’s acquisition of the platform in October 2022. A December outage impacted over 77,000 users across multiple countries, underlining the challenges of maintaining digital infrastructure at scale.

As Meta endeavors to restore services for its billions of users, the incident serves as a reminder of the interconnected nature of today’s digital landscape. The company’s response to the outage and the potential implications for its workforce will continue to be closely monitored by industry observers.