On Friday, a significant disruption affected WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, leading to widespread user frustration. According to Downdetector, a service that monitors online outages, over 4,000 reports of issues with WhatsApp emerged from the United States, while India saw a staggering 10,000 complaints. The situation prompted a notable response from users, with nearly 1,000 reports concerning Facebook Messenger in the U.S. alone.
Geographical Impact
The United Kingdom was not spared, with over 7,500 reports of WhatsApp issues. The Downdetector map indicated that major cities such as London, Manchester, and Glasgow were among the hardest hit. Among those who reported problems, a significant 59% indicated they were unable to send messages, while 22% experienced server connection issues, and the remaining 19% pointed to app-related difficulties.
Social media platforms buzzed with user reactions as individuals expressed their frustrations. One user on X, formerly known as Twitter, humorously advised others, “Stop toggling your Airplane mode on/off. Stop refreshing your WhatsApp. It’s not your network, WhatsApp is down.” Another user quipped, “WhatsApp went down after someone asked me for banking details yasis,” while a third shared a GIF depicting a frantic rush, captioned, “Me running to X to see if WhatsApp is actually down or it’s my network.”
This incident echoes a similar occurrence from December of the previous year, when several Meta applications, including WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, suffered a global outage that affected millions. Users reported a range of issues, from slow loading times to complete inaccessibility. In response, Meta issued an apology and committed to restoring services promptly. At that time, Downdetector recorded over 105,000 complaints related to Facebook, 70,000 for Instagram, and more than 12,000 for WhatsApp.
