Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, faced a massive outage on Tuesday, March 5, that disrupted its services for thousands of users around the world. The outage lasted for several hours, starting from around 10:00 am ET, and prevented users from logging in, posting, or browsing on the platforms.
According to outage tracking website Downdetector.com, more than 300,000 reports were registered from users who experienced issues with Facebook and Instagram. The reports came from various regions, including North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Some users also reported problems with Meta’s other products, such as Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus.
Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, acknowledged the outage on X (previously known as Twitter) and said that the company was working to resolve it as soon as possible.
However, he did not provide any details on the cause or the scope of the outage. Meta has not yet issued an official statement or apology for the incident.
Multiple users took notice that the company had to notify its users through X and mocked it for doing so.
Another user tweeted:
Elon Musk, the proud owner of X, decided to join the fray and took a shot at his competition. He wrote, “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working”.
He also posted an edited picture from the Penguins of Madagascar, attaching Andy Stone’s post to it.
This recent outage comes at a critical time for Meta, as the company is facing increasing scrutiny and criticism from regulators, lawmakers, activists, and users over its handling of privacy, misinformation, hate speech, and other issues.
Meta’s platforms are among the most popular and influential social media services in the world, with billions of users and advertisers. However, the frequent outages and glitches have affected the performance and reputation of the company, as well as the satisfaction and loyalty of the users.
Meta will have to work hard to restore its services and regain its users’ trust in 2024 and beyond.
