Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, grappled with a global outage as users worldwide experienced difficulties accessing these popular social media platforms for approximately two hours on Tuesday. The disruption was attributed to a “technical issue,” according to Meta.
During the outage, users attempting to log onto the websites and apps encountered error messages and were unable to refresh their feeds as usual. Meta, in a statement, acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the disruption and expressed its apologies, emphasizing that it worked swiftly to resolve the technical problem.
Downdetector, a website that tracks online service disruptions, indicated that the outages affected users in multiple countries. Meta’s platforms are among the most widely used globally, with Facebook boasting three billion active monthly users and Instagram projected to reach 1.4 billion users later this year.
The impact of the outage extended beyond the main platforms, as Threads, Meta’s platform competing with Twitter, also reported disruptions. However, WhatsApp, another platform owned by Meta, remained unaffected.
This incident follows Meta’s notable outage in 2021 when Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram services experienced a nearly six-hour disruption. Founder Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology for the inconvenience caused during that extensive outage. The company has reaffirmed its commitment to addressing and resolving technical issues promptly to minimize disruptions to its vast user base.
