On Wednesday afternoon, Meta’s suite of applications, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, faced significant disruptions, prompting a surge of user reports on DownDetector. The issues began around 12:30 p.m. EST, with Facebook users alone exceeding 100,000 outage reports by approximately 1:10 p.m. EST. Instagram and WhatsApp also saw a notable increase in reported problems, reflecting a widespread impact across Meta’s platforms.
As the afternoon progressed, the number of reported outages began to decline. By just before 5:30 p.m. EST, Facebook’s outage reports had fallen to over 1,200, while Instagram’s issues decreased to about 1,900 from a peak of more than 68,000. Reports for WhatsApp and Messenger also showed a significant reduction from their earlier highs.
Many users attempting to access Facebook encountered an error message that stated, “We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.” Meta’s status page indicated that nearly all of its business tools, including Facebook Ads Manager and Messenger API for Instagram, were experiencing major disruptions at that time.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., Meta took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to communicate with users, expressing gratitude for their patience and stating, “We’re 99% of the way there – just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who’ve been affected by the outage.”
Key Background
This recent outage follows a global disruption in March that lasted over two hours, attributed to a technical issue that affected hundreds of thousands of users. During that incident, Facebook saw more than 538,000 reports of problems, while Instagram logged over 91,000 issues, according to reports from major news outlets.
Tangent
The challenges faced by Meta are not isolated. Recent weeks have seen at least two other significant tech outages. On November 25, several Microsoft platforms experienced downtime for more than a day, coinciding with the rollout of a new Recall AI tool for Windows Insiders. Earlier, on November 21, Reddit encountered two outages within a 24-hour span, with over 76,000 users reporting issues on DownDetector.
Forbes Valuation
In the broader context of the tech industry, Meta holds the 24th position on Forbes’ Global 2000 list, which ranks the world’s largest public companies based on sales, profits, assets, and market value. As of June, Meta reported approximately 2.7 billion in sales, .8 billion in profit, and a market value of .197 trillion.
Further Reading
For those interested in the evolving landscape of technology and its impact on business, the recent outages serve as a reminder of the complexities involved in maintaining large-scale digital platforms. The ripple effects of such disruptions can influence user trust and corporate reputation, making it essential for companies like Meta to address these challenges swiftly and effectively.
