Meta’s Facebook, Instagram back after 2-hour crash

Facebook, Instagram down today. This is the first time this year that Meta owned platforms are facing a major down time.

Facebook, Instagram down with many users scrambling to access their accounts. (Reuters file)

Services of Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Thread were restored after suffering a global outage on Tuesday night around 9 pm. According to DownDetector, a website that tracks real-time instances of outages, Facebook reportedly went down at around 8:57pm. The tracker showed as many as 15,381 reports. Instagram too faced the outage around the same time with as many as 32,537 reports, as per the website.

Soon, the X handle of Meta posted: “We know some people were having trouble accessing our apps earlier. Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused, and thank you for your patience while our teams worked quickly to resolve!” Services were, however, restored after about two hours after the outage was first detected.

And we're back 💙 So sorry for those who were unable to access Facebook earlier today.

— Facebook (@facebook) March 5, 2024

During the outage, many users complained of being suddenly logged out of their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Others reported being logged out without an option to log back in, while those with two-factor authentication struggled to get codes to complete their log-ins. The issues occurred on both the app and the website.

Facebook status as per DownDetector.

So far, the cause of the outage remains unknown. Several users in the US have reported issues with resetting their passwords and using two-factor security login. After being logged out, we at indianexpress.com tried accessing one of our accounts using the two-factor verification method over email, however, we are yet to receive the security code.

Meanwhile, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone has acknowledged the issue and posted on his X account, ” We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.”

We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024

The outage seems to have impacted various kinds of businesses and publishers who rely on Facebook for marketing and various outreach activities.

Ever since Facebook and Instagram went off the grid, several users flocked to other social media platforms to find out the causes behind the outage.

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The hashtag “#FacebookDown” is trending on X, with thousands of users sharing memes and their unique takes on the outage.

People coming to X to check if Facebook down 😛 #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/yPO1fQj9za

— Pawan (@pawankumarindo) March 5, 2024

Elon Musk after seen Mark Zuckerberg both Instagram down and Facebook down 👇#instagramdown #facebookdown #meta pic.twitter.com/gg1nt4MnPk

— Ashutosh Srivastava 🇮🇳 (@sri_ashutosh08) March 5, 2024

me opening twitter to see if my phone is not broken, and facebook and messenger is just down #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/reuhmUnrDb

— win (@alltoowin) March 5, 2024

Facebook and Instagram users flocking to X to check if these websites are down#facebookdown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/IZwgjmlMx5

— Heisenberg (@rovvmut_) March 5, 2024

The issue was also reported on Messenger with many users getting logged out.