Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads were down - here's what you need to know
These top social media and communication platforms had a rough afternoon
Instagram, Threads, Meta, and WhatsApp, virtually, all of Meta's main services suffered outage on Wednesday afternoon. While none of the platforms appeared to return 500 errors, many stopped updating and refused to accept posts.
Down Detector shows a massive increase in outage reports for all the services starting at about noon ET. Since then, they've slowly and almost completely, recovered. Other unrelated sites and services, according to Down Detector, also appeared to be struggling at the same time, including Amazon's AWS service which backs many of the popular sites and services throughout the Internet, and even Reddit.
On Threads, we couldn't upload images or refresh our feeds. On Instagram, notifications were empty.
We've contacted Meta for comment and will update this live blog with its response.
But the good news is that most of Meta's platforms now appear operational. Here's how it all went down (and came back up).
AWS have a role here
As we mentioned, AWS, at least according to Down Detector, was also struggling in the early afternoon. Since we've heard whispers of other services outside the Meta's orbit also struggling, this might be a bigger issue than one company's servers. AWS serves countless websites and online services.
How it started
We first noticed the outage on Threads where the platform began rejecting image uploads. Soon, the feeds started disappearing.
Subsequent checks of Instagram and Facebook showed similar instabilities.
In case you didn't know, Threads is owned by Instagram, which is also owned by Meta. The upstart social media platform has grown quickly over the last 16 months and has been remarkably stable. In recent months, its biggest challenge has come not from infrastructure but from Bluesky, which while slightly older than Threads recently rose to prominence during a mass exodus from X (formerly Twitter). For what it's worth, Bluesky and X appear unaffected by any larger Internet issues.
A recovery
By 3:58 PM ET, most of Meta's major services appeared to be recovering. Down Detector showed a significant downturn in outage reports
Instagram Notifications reappeared and Threads was, for the most part, accepting image uploads.
The uncertainty of it all
This is the kind of platform outage that leaves you guessing. Systems work, but inconsistently. I was posting – I thought – but was pretty sure no one was seeing it. I finally posted a poll on Threads to see if the system was still out or if social engagement would continue.
With exactly two votes (at this writing) it's clear that not everything is working as it should.
Post by @lanceulanoffView on Threads
A rough ride
WhatsApp may have had the roughest ride with two massive outage report spikes, as per Down Detector. It being a private messaging app, it's hard to know what people were experiencing or what they were saying (and not able to say) about the outage.
Based on the current chart WhatsApp also appears to be recovering.
The dust settles
One of the more interesting aspects of an outage like this, especially when it touches multiple services is how it can have a knock-on effect for seemingly unrelated platforms. When people can't get onto their favorite social media and encrypted communication platforms, they sometimes look for other places to blame.
Services like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Spectrum also got their share of outage reports in the same timeframe but it's unlikely they were either responsible or even impacted. It's just that when you can't reach Facebook, you start to wonder if your cellular or internet service is down. It's usually not.
Mopping up
Meta did eventually hop onto X (formerly Twitter) to first acknowledge the issues and then let everyone know they're working on it. At around 6PM, Meta returned to X to tell everyone, "We’re 99% of the way there."
No details about what happened, like which technical issues brought down the majority of Meta's apps, but it's good to see they've solved the majority of whatever caused today's outage.
