Meta’s popular platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp, are back online after experiencing a widespread global outage on Wednesday that affected millions of users. While Meta confirmed the issue was nearly resolved, Facebook has yet to clarify if all technical problems have been fully addressed.
“Thanks for bearing with us! We’re 99% of the way there – just doing some last checks,” Meta posted on X. “We apologize to those who’ve been affected by the outage.”
As per the sources of Leaders, according to Downdetector, over 22,000 users reported issues with Facebook, while more than 18,000 had trouble accessing WhatsApp during the outage. The disruptions were reported across several regions, including the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the US.
WhatsApp and Instagram both took to X to announce their return to service. “And we’re back, happy chatting!” WhatsApp shared, while Instagram posted, “Andddd we’re back – sorry for the wait, and thanks for bearing with us.”
According to the reports received by Leaders sources, the issues began around 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, with some users unable to access the apps at all or experiencing issues with feeds not refreshing. Meta acknowledged the “technical issue” and worked swiftly to resolve it.
Meta’s platforms, which include Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, are some of the most widely used in the world, with Facebook alone boasting over three billion active monthly users. The 2021 outage, which lasted nearly six hours, remains Meta’s largest disruption to date, prompting an apology from founder Mark Zuckerberg.
