Meta services restored after global outage
Apps taken out by unspecified ‘technical issue’
A major technical issue brought down all of Meta's major platforms on Wednesday evening, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Threads.
The outage, which began around 6 PM UK time, affected users worldwide.
Downdetector, a real-time service outage tracker, reported a surge in outage reports for all of Meta's platforms. More than 100,000 users reported issues with Facebook at its peak outage time of 6:11 PM UK time, according to Downdetector.
Users encountered difficulties accessing services, including problems with logging in, posting content and sending messages.
Meta acknowledged the issue, attributing it to a "technical issue" that impacted user access to its apps. The company assured users that it was actively working to restore normal service as soon as possible.
"We're aware that a technical issue is impacting some users' ability to access our apps. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience," Meta said on X.
A separate Instagram-specific X post said the company recognises "there's a technical issue impacting some people's ability to access Instagram."
Similar messages were shared on WhatsApp's official account.
The company later said that it was nearing the complete resolution of the issue.
"Thanks for bearing with us! We're 99 per cent of the way there - just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who've been affected by the outage," the company stated on X.
Shortly after, WhatsApp and Instagram resumed normal services.
"We're back, happy chatting!" WhatsApp said on its official X account.
"Andddd we're back – sorry for the wait, and thanks for bearing with us," Instagram said.
The exact cause of the outage remains undisclosed.
Meta's platforms, including Facebook with over three billion active monthly users, are among the world's most popular social networking platforms.
Meta has experienced similar outages in the past.
In 2021, a widespread service outage affected Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram for nearly six hours. The company says it has since implemented measures since then to enhance its infrastructure and minimise the recurrence of such incidents.
But in March of this year, the company suffered an outage that affected Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
The incident coincided with the Super Tuesday US presidential primaries, causing notable inconvenience to users during a critical moment.
The outage was particularly noticeable in the UK, with London, Manchester and Birmingham reporting a high number of affected users.
In the US, major cities like New York, Seattle and San Francisco were also significantly impacted.