On Wednesday, Meta experienced a significant disruption across its suite of social media and messaging platforms, impacting Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Threads. By late afternoon, the majority of these services were restored to near full functionality.
Details of the Outage
Reports of issues began to surface around 10 a.m. PT, as users flocked to Downdetector to share their experiences. The web version of Instagram displayed error messages, while the mobile app was plagued by a persistent spinning wheel when users attempted to refresh their feeds. Although Stories remained operational, the “following” tab was met with a frustrating “couldn’t load activity” notification.
As the hours progressed, the volume of outage reports began to decline, yet many users continued to face slow-loading pages, with some content appearing to be hours old. In a timely response, Meta acknowledged the situation on X at 10:48 a.m. PT, stating, “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.”
Technical Insights
Cisco ThousandEyes attributed the outage to “internal server errors and timeouts,” suggesting potential complications within Meta’s backend services. Despite the widespread nature of the disruption, Meta has not yet provided a detailed explanation regarding the root cause of the outage.
As users sought solace from the technical difficulties, many took to X to vent their frustrations and share humorous memes about the experience, creating a sense of community amid the chaos. Meta later updated its followers, expressing gratitude for their patience and confirming that they were “99% of the way there” with the restoration process, while assuring users that final checks were underway.
