Meta-owned platforms, Facebook and Instagram experienced a widespread outage in the early hours of Saturday, leaving users unable to access the platforms. Instagram stories displayed an error message while loading, and users reported difficulties in sending and receiving messages on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
The outage, which lasted for over two hours, affected Meta's entire suite of platforms, as indicated by spikes in reports on the Downdetector website.
In response to the disruption, Instagram tweeted an acknowledgment of the issue and assured users that they were working to restore standard functionality as quickly as possible. This incident follows a recent technical problem that caused a temporary global outage on Instagram, impacting its services for users worldwide, including in India.
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During the outage, frustrated users turned to Twitter to express their frustrations, sharing memes and GIFs highlighting the problems they encountered with the app. This isn't the first time Instagram has experienced such issues. In May, the platform went down for over an hour, with users encountering error messages preventing the app from refreshing, while others found the website completely blank.
WhatsApp, another messaging platform owned by Meta, also faced a global outage, including in India, earlier this month. Users encountered difficulties accessing the platform on mobile and desktop devices, along with issues related to sending and downloading media.
Earlier in January, WhatsApp experienced a server-side issue that prevented the global update of the privacy setting "who can see when I'm online" on iOS devices.
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The recent series of outages raise concerns about the stability and reliability of Meta's platforms. The company's spokesperson cited technical problems as the cause of the disruptions, leading to difficulties accessing Instagram globally
As the outage was resolved after more than two hours, users were relieved to regain access to their social media platforms and messaging services.
