Meta’s social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, have been restored after experiencing hours of service glitches that disrupted access for thousands of users on Tuesday, March 5.
Meta’s suite of social media platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, experienced a global outage, leaving many unable to access these services.
The incident began around 3:45 pm Nigerian time.
Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, acknowledged the issues in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.”
Reports of outages surged, with over 200 reports recorded on Downdetector for WhatsApp, another Meta-owned platform.
The outage quickly became a top trending topic on social media platforms, with users reporting being logged out of their accounts and encountering difficulties logging back in.
The disruption impacted not only user access but also Meta’s internal systems, causing widespread frustration among users.
Instagram users found their News Feeds replaced with error messages, indicating the severity of the situation.
Over 200,000 reports were said to have flooded in from users in the Americas alone, with Facebook bearing the brunt of the disruption.
Major cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, and cities across California experienced widespread impact, as indicated by DownDetector’s outage map.
The majority of complaints pointed fingers at the apps themselves, with Facebook leading at a staggering 72 percent, closely followed by Instagram at 64 percent, and Messenger trailing behind at 50 percent.
Despite the frustration, users turned to alternative forms of communication in the absence of these social media platforms, underscoring their significant role in today’s interconnected world.
