Major social media platforms including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook faced global outages, leaving users unable to access their accounts. The issue was first identified by the internet monitoring organization Netblocks, sparking widespread concern among the digital community.
Netblocks highlighted significant disruptions in service for Facebook, Instagram, and their messaging counterpart, pinpointing difficulties related to user login across several countries. Confirmation of these disruptions came from Downdetector, a renowned outage tracking website, which noted an overwhelming number of reports from distressed users.
“Amidst an ongoing disruption to Meta services, even the company’s official status page is currently showing status “Unknown” across the board. Major outage incident.” Director of Research at netblocks
Amidst an ongoing disruption to Meta services, even the company’s official status page is currently showing status “Unknown” across the board. Major outage incident. #Metadown https://t.co/0Hhfmb4uSM pic.twitter.com/9GrOICiIpl
— Isik Mater (@isik5) March 5, 2024
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SCALE OF DISRUPTION
The disturbances were reported to have commenced around the morning hours of Eastern Time, as detailed by Reuters. Downdetector’s data revealed an alarming number of outage reports peaking over 300,000 for Facebook and 40,000 for Instagram. Additionally, Meta’s status dashboard indicated that WhatsApp Business’s API was experiencing its own set of challenges, with around 200 outage reports concerning WhatsApp alone.
ℹ️ Note: Meta platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads are currently experiencing outages related to login sessions in multiple countries; incident not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering #FacebookDown #InstagramDown #ThreadsDown pic.twitter.com/0yR5mKCoQY
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) March 5, 2024
The social media interruption became a hot topic on X (formerly known as Twitter), capturing the attention of many. Numerous individuals expressed their frustrations and surprise over being unexpectedly logged out of their accounts on the affected Meta platforms. Meta, through spokesperson Andy Stone, acknowledged the issue on X, assuring users that efforts were underway to resolve the situation promptly.
TECHNICAL CLARIFICATIONS
According to Netblocks, the cause of the outage was not attributed to any internet disruptions at the country level or any form of online filtering. This suggests the problem was internal to the platforms involved.
In Pakistan, the situation was particularly tense as reports of the outage began to surge in the evening. This occurrence, combined with the government’s ongoing throttling of X, significantly limited social media access for the country’s internet populace, adding to the digital distress experienced by users.
It’s worth noting that this is not the first time Facebook and Instagram have encountered such issues. A similar incident was recorded in June 2023, highlighting a recurring challenge for these platforms in maintaining uninterrupted service for their global user base.
