Facebook and Instagram down as users hit by bug that blocks access
If you are trying and failing to get access to your Facebook and Instagram account this afternoon you are not alone.
It appears the social media apps are both down for most users globally - and Facebook Messenger and Threads are reported as not working too. Some users are also reporting problems sending and receiving WhatsApp messages. All of those are part of the Meta stable of social media companies.
The gremlins appear to have started at around 3.20pm with the outage still ongoing and no word on when it will be fixed. The first signs of issues were when users were greeted with a "session expired" or "unexpected error" message.
Downdetector, which monitors outages across the globe, is showing over 160,000 reports of Facebook being down in the UK. Instagram stands at over 40,000 reports making this one of the biggest issues for Meta in years.
Facebook and Instagram are down (GETTY)At 3:52pm, Meta's Communications Director Andy Stone shared on X (formerly Twitter): "We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now." Meta’s status page showed “major disruptions” impacting Facebook login, as well as some other areas of the platform.
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It's unclear what is causing the problems but many Facebook and Instagram users have dashed to rival social site, X (formerly Twitter). The hashtag #facebookdown is trending on Twitter with hundreds of users posting their frustration or asking what had happened.
One of the first users to post said: "Facebook is Down. Can't access my account," whilst another added: "Facebook Down/ Instagram Down everything in Meta down."
Facebook users have reported feeling worried that being logged out and met with a message that their password was incorrect as an indication of being hacked - however, there is no evidence of this at this stage.
Facebook Messenger runs as a separate app on most mobile devices. Users are also reporting that their Messenger app and function is also not working at the moment. People are being met with the same message that they have been logged out. Threads displayed an error message that said “Something went wrong, please try again later”.
It's very rare for Meta apps to have such big issues and hopefully, the tech team will be desperately trying to fix the glitch as soon as possible. The cause of the issue is currently unknown and we await more information on when access to accounts will be restored.
Meta have been contacted for comment. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has not commented on the outage but in 2021, following six hours of downtime, he posted: "Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today -- I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about."
In a savage comeback, X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk posted on Tuesday afternoon, writing: "If you are reading this post, it's because our servers are working." As of 4.24 pm, reports are slowly dropping which could be a sign that things are slowly coming back to normal.
The last time there was a reported outage of this scale was the 2021 outage, when on October 5, millions were thrown off the platform and were unable to get back on for several hours. All four Meta-owned apps were down for six hours due to issues with the Border Gateway Protocol, which essentially signposts users onto the site.
Meta at the time issued a heartfelt apology, writing: "We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience. To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us."
Mirror will keep you updated on all the latest news as it happens.
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