Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Yep, it’s not just you. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are down for many

By

You are not the only one. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger have been out of action for many users around the world for much of Wednesday in what appears to be the most serious outage in the company’s history.

The first signs of a problem appeared at around 12 p.m. E.T. when users started reporting they were unable to login to Facebook or see the newsfeed or timeline. Others reported that they could enter the site but not post anything.

Recommended Videos

At around the same time, Instagram users also started to report the same behavior, as did users in WhatsApp, who were unable to send and receive messages.

Related

With no way to communicate with its community via its own online services, Facebook, which has 2.3 billion monthly users, took to Twitter to let everyone know that it was aware of the situation affecting its family of apps, and promised it was working to sort it out “as soon as possible.”

According to Down Detector, a website that tracks accessibility issues for sites across the web, 34 percent of users are having trouble logging in to Facebook, 33 percent have issues with the Newsfeed, and 31 percent are experiencing a total blackout of the service. Facebook’s own status dashboard — at 9.30 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday — is describing the situation as a “partial outage” that started “9 hours ago.”

Shortly after its initial announcement on Twitter, Facebook clarified that the problem had not been caused by a Distributed Denial of Service attack, though it didn’t rule out the possibility that another kind of cyber attack could have caused the disruption. It also couldn’t say how long it might take to fix.

We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack.

— Meta (@Meta) March 13, 2019

Outages for social media platforms aren’t so unusual, but the length of time it is taking to sort this one out sets it apart from many others that have gone before.

And as Facebook engineers scramble to fix the issue, some members of its global community have done exactly what you’d expect — taken to Twitter to vent their frustrations, or simply make light of the situation. Here are a few humorous efforts from celebrities:

Facebook is down !
Instagram is down !
Welcome to my twitter ! pic.twitter.com/Yjk4o9BVOH

— Tommy Wiseau (@TommyWiseau) March 13, 2019

https://twitter.com/mindykaling/status/1105971325527457792

https://twitter.com/LinzDeFranco/status/1105985409895489536

Time to fire this back up. #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/Q3x9BQEin8

— Lawrence Champness (@champy) March 13, 2019

Facebook AND Instagram are down…

MySpace, it's your chance to make a comeback!#FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/ILccg1PtC8

— Troy Osinoff 🕺 (@yo) March 13, 2019

https://twitter.com/mandi_hinrichs/status/1105969710707998720

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Having trouble accessing your Instagram account? You’re not alone
Instagram being used on an iPhone.

Instagram appears to be down right now, but the glitch many users are reporting is an odd one. It's not just that users are having trouble accessing the popular photo- and video-sharing app, but they're also having trouble accessing their own accounts and have reported being hit with account suspension notices.

On Monday morning, the apparent Instagram outage was reported by users on Twitter and on Downdetector. Both sites included numerous reports saying that users suddenly lost access to their IG accounts and were given account suspension notices.

Read more
Instagram and Facebook down? You’re not alone
Turned on smartphone with Instagram app icon on its screen.

Thursday morning. The work week is almost over, the weekend is just around the corner ... and that also apparently means that you can't use Instagram or Facebook. At the time of publication on Thursday, October 27, both Instagram and Facebook appear to be down.

Looking at Down Detector, reports for the outage spiked around 9:40 a.m. with 2,000+ reports. For Facebook, 65% of users are having issues with the website, another 29% are having problems with the app, and 6% are reporting issues with their feed/timeline.

Read more
Can’t stand using Instagram in 2022? This app fixes everything you hate about it
The OG App running on an iPhone.

It's no secret that many users are irritated with the steady barrage of new types of content that Meta keeps forcing onto Instagram. The app's complete pivot to Tiktok-like video Reels, the near-constant suggested posts, and the ever-present ads have turned a lot of people off from an app that used to be about simply sharing photos with friends.

In response to what Instagram has become, The OG App was created as a back-to-basics version of Instagram that cuts out a lot of the bloat that's been crammed in.

Read more