After a brief disruption lasting approximately one hour, normal service on Facebook and Instagram has resumed.
The outage, which occurred around 3:30 pm on Tuesday, resulted in users being unexpectedly logged out of both platforms. However, Meta, the parent company, has since rectified the issue.
Channels Television’s verification confirmed that both social media services are now accessible to users.
Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone, addressed the situation in a statement: “We experienced a technical issue earlier today that hindered access to our services. We’ve swiftly resolved the matter for all affected parties and extend our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
During the outage, users encountered error messages when attempting to log in, with Facebook indicating an incorrect password and Instagram displaying a loading issue.
The hashtag #instagramdown surged in popularity as millions reported the service interruption on X, a social media platform.
Downdetector’s website also reflected a significant number of reports concerning login difficulties with Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
Meta provided assurances that it was investigating the outages, which also impacted Threads, a recent addition to the social media landscape.
Despite the widespread issues, WhatsApp, another Meta-owned service, appeared unaffected.
This incident mirrors a similar service interruption that Facebook experienced in October 2021, which was ultimately linked to technical problems rather than a security breach.
During the peak of the outage, Facebook’s advertiser status page indicated “major disruptions,” with engineers working diligently to resolve the situation.
Attempts to log into Facebook prompted users to enter their credentials, but even correct passwords were rejected. Instagram users, on the other hand, found their feeds were not updating.
Additionally, there were reports of difficulties with Meta’s virtual reality headsets, specifically with logging into the Horizon World platform.
Facebook boasts the largest user base of any social media platform globally, with three billion monthly active users, while Instagram has approximately 1.35 billion users.
As Meta users encountered access issues, X, previously known as Twitter, experienced a surge in user activity.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, humorously confirmed the platform’s operational status, seemingly poking fun at the rival company’s predicament.
