Facebook and Instagram Experience Widespread Outage, Thousands Affected

A technical issue has taken down Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, leaving thousands of users unable to access the popular social media platforms.

According to Meta Newsroom, the company acknowledged the issue on Wednesday afternoon, stating, “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.”

The outage has been confirmed by Instagram and WhatsApp via X, with many users taking to social media to report their inability to access the platforms.

Outage tracking site Downdetector has reported a significant spike in issues, with Instagram logging almost 70,000 reports, Facebook reaching up to 105,000 outage reports, and WhatsApp experiencing around 12,500 reports.

This latest outage comes on the heels of several high-profile technical issues in 2024, including a massive Microsoft Outlook and Teams outage in November and a CrowdStrike software issue over the summer that halted air travel and disrupted hospitals.

Meta’s platforms boast an impressive 3.98 billion monthly active users, making this outage a significant disruption to the social media landscape.