In a surprising turn of events, Meta’s social media empire, including Facebook and Instagram, faced a widespread outage lasting over two hours on Tuesday, March 5. Users around the globe reported encountering issues such as being mysteriously logged out and experiencing difficulties logging back in. The outage affected millions, with reports of errors flooding in from around 10:25 a.m. ET, according to monitoring service Downdetector.
A staggering 500,000 error reports were registered by Downdetector at approximately 10:40 a.m., with a significant 76% of reported problems linked to trouble logging into Facebook. Instagram users also faced challenges, reporting issues with feed refreshes and an inability to post content. The disruption extended to Meta’s Messaging platform and Threads, the company’s Twitter-like app.
The Facebook Login Status page acknowledged “major disruptions” at 10:17 a.m., assuring users that engineering teams were actively working on resolving the issue. An update at 12:07 p.m. stated that Facebook Login services were in the process of being restored, with an apology for any inconvenience caused.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone reassured users at 12:19 p.m., stating that the company had resolved the issue swiftly after a “technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services.” This outage marks the second significant disruption since October 2021, when a multiple-service outage affected Facebook, Instagram, and other apps for about six hours.
Elon Musk, the tech magnate behind X, took a cheeky dig at Meta during the outage, emphasizing the reliability of his servers with a tweet stating, “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working.”
The outage drew attention on various social media platforms, with #CyberAttack trending on Twitter and users expressing concerns about potential hacking. However, Meta clarified that it was a standard technical problem caused by the company itself.
Businesses relying on Facebook for marketing expressed concerns, highlighting the platform’s significant role in global communication. The outage prompted users to migrate to alternative social networks to voice frustrations and seek updates, with the hashtag #FacebookDown gaining traction.
Meta’s status page for business products showed a mix of yellow, indicating ongoing issues, and some turning green, signifying “no known issues.” The severity of the situation is evident from the sheer volume of reports, with over 560,000 problem reports at the height of the outage, according to Downdetector.
While services are gradually recovering, users are advised to remain patient and refrain from unnecessary actions such as changing passwords. Meta’s technical team is actively addressing the situation, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
In conclusion, the “Facebook Down” saga once again highlights the vulnerability of our dependence on major social media platforms, emphasizing the need for reliable and resilient communication infrastructure in today’s interconnected world.