Several applications owned by Meta experienced a significant global outage on Wednesday, impacting Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. The services have since been restored, with Instagram and WhatsApp confirming their return to functionality.
While Facebook is yet to verify if all issues have been resolved, Meta has expressed its progress, stating, “Thanks for bearing with us! We’re 99% of the way there – just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who’ve been affected by the outage.” This update was shared on an unspecified platform, referred to as “X.”
Downdetector, a platform that tracks outages, reported over 22,000 issue reports for Facebook on the evening of the outage and over 18,000 for WhatsApp. The disruptions were widespread, with users in the UK, various parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the US all reporting problems.
WhatsApp and Instagram both communicated their return to service on platform “X,” with WhatsApp stating, “And we’re back, happy chatting!” and Instagram following suit with, “Andddd we’re back – sorry for the wait, and thanks for bearing with us.”
The outages began around 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, according to Downdetector. The numbers are based on user-reported outages, and the actual number of affected users could be significantly different.
Meta quickly acknowledged a “technical issue” that was “impacting some users’ ability to access our apps” and assured that they were working on a resolution. Users reported a range of problems, from complete inability to use the apps to feeds that refused to refresh.
WhatsApp provided an update on their efforts, saying, “We’re aware of some issues accessing WhatsApp. We’re actively working on a solution and starting to see a return to normal for most people. We expect things to be back to normal shortly.”
Meta’s platforms boast some of the highest user engagement globally, with Facebook alone claiming over three billion active monthly users.
The most extensive outage Meta has faced was in 2021, when founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the disruption. During that incident, services for Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram were down for nearly six hours.