On Wednesday night, a server outage at Meta caused disruptions across messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Thread. In India, around 11 PM, users began reporting issues with Meta's platforms. Users faced difficulties sending or receiving messages on WhatsApp, while services on popular chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI’s API, and Sora video generator platforms were also impacted.
Similarly, Instagram, Facebook, and Thread were struggling with feed uploads. Note that aside from WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Thread are also owned by Meta.
Users of these popular social media platforms endured these problems for over an hour. The outage resolved around 2 AM, allowing users to resume glitch-free interaction on these platforms. Memes about Meta’s outage flooded social media platform X, with users trending hashtags like #WhatsAppDown, #InstagramDown, and #FacebookDown. Meta Down and Mark Zuckerberg were also trending on X, as users trolled Meta and Zuckerberg using memes, videos, and opinions.
For users, access to messages, posts, and updates was either slow or completely unavailable. This issue was observed on both desktop and mobile versions of Meta platforms. Users were posting on Meta’s support site or the Downdetector website regarding this outage. Downdetector is a site where users can report issues and site crashes of social media and internet platforms according to time zones and geographical zones.
Meta issued a statement on X acknowledging the global outage of its services and mentioned working towards restoring WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Users began reporting the outage around 10:58 PM on Wednesday. Facebook users faced login issues and difficulties uploading posts. Instagram, also owned by Meta, encountered similar problems with frequent app crashes. WhatsApp users struggled with message sending and receiving. However, shortly after Meta’s statement on X, the issue was resolved, and all platforms resumed function.
