Here’s why Instagram, Facebook, and Threads faced a 2-hour-long outage

Updated on 06-Mar-2024

HIGHLIGHTS

Downdetector.com reported more than 300,000 reports of Facebook outages.

Meta also shared a message on its status page, We are aware of an issue impacting Facebook Login.

At around 10AM ET, Stone took to X to inform that the issue had been resolved.

Last evening, most of our social media platforms faced an outage where they were just not working. The social media platforms under question are all Meta owned. Instagram, Facebook, and Threads were all down for a couple of hours. And the issue was not just faced by us Indians, but everyone globally. During this time, feeds were not loading, people were unable to send messages, and well some like me slept on time because of it.

Most of the Facebook users were randomly logged out of their accounts. On the other hand, with Instagram, people were just not able to refresh their feeds, watch stories etc. The accounts showed that users needed to complete their profiles, and the posts on many accounts were missing. Downdetector.com reported more than 300,000 reports of outages for Facebook and over 40,000 for Instagram.

Also read: Meta announces broadcast channels on Facebook & Messenger: Know more

What caused the outage?

Flagging the issue, Meta’s head of communications, Andy Stone said in a tweet on X, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.” Meta also shared a message on its status page, We are aware of an issue impacting Facebook Login. Our engineering teams are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Now the reason behind this was not completely revealed by the company. At around 10AM ET, Stone took to X to inform that the issue had been resolved. He tweeted, “Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

Also read: No more ads in Insta and FB? Why Instagram and Facebook are going ad free

The outage however caused a meme fest on the internet with many re-routing to X. Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t leave a chance to pull his competitor’s legs. He took to X and said, “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working.”

Well, you tell me how your experience was with Meta being down in the comments below.

Mustafa Khan

Mustafa is new on the block and is a tech geek who is currently working with Digit as a News Writer. He tests the new gadgets that come on board and writes for the news desk. He has found his way with words and you can count on him when in need of tech advice. No judgement. He is based out of Delhi, he’s your person for good photos, good food recommendations, and to know about anything GenZ.