Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all owned by Meta, experienced a significant outage on Wednesday night, frustrating millions globally. The disruption, caused by a “technical issue,” began around 7 pm Central European Time (CET) and lasted for several hours.
The problem was widely reported on Downdetector, a website that tracks issues with popular platforms. At the peak of the outage, over 23,900 Facebook users reported connectivity problems, with 72% struggling to access the app. WhatsApp also faced severe issues, with more than 15,000 reports of trouble, mostly involving message sending. Instagram users were similarly affected, though specific figures were not detailed.
Meta addressed the situation through a statement on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, assuring users they were working to resolve the issue swiftly. By 11:30 pm CET, outage reports had significantly decreased. Meta announced they were “99% of the way there” in restoring normal operations and apologised to affected users.
The outage appeared to impact users globally, with Europe experiencing disruptions similar to other regions. This incident highlights the dependency billions have on Meta’s services, which include Facebook and WhatsApp, each with about 3 billion active users, and Instagram, boasting 2 billion users.
The temporary disruption serves as a reminder of the central role Meta’s platforms play in communication, work, and social interaction worldwide. As services resumed, Meta expressed gratitude for users’ patience and promised to ensure better reliability.
