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Facebook and Instagram experiencing outages along the East and West Coasts of the U.S.

By Minjun Park
2 min read
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Instagram and its stablemate Facebook are both experiencing outages on Tuesday evening. The number of Instagram users reporting a problem to DownDetector soared to 11,965 at 9:47 pm ET compared to 62 who had an issue at 7:01 pm ET. Facebook, at 9:48 pm, had 650 complaints submitted with DownDetector compared to the 49 complaints lodged with the site at 7:02 pm ET.

71% of the complaints from Facebook users mentioned issues with the website, 20% had an issue with the app and 10% couldn’t log in to the social media site. Several complaints said that Facebook was not loading. As for Instagram, 55% of the complaints revolved around the app, 33% complained about a server connection, and 12% could nor log in. The comments posted on DownDetector noted how the app was not up and running this evening. As one user wrote, “Ughhh wtf?”

Instagram’s Threads social media platform also saw a huge surge in complaints filed with DownDetector although the latter says that the platform is only showing a “possible problem.” From no complaints at all at 7:19 pm ET,  125 complaints were tallied at 9:49 pm ET. 72% of Threads users had issues with the app, 25% complained about the website, and 3% had a problem with a server connection. As one Threads user said on DownDetector, “Threads is down big time for me. Anyone else?”

Other Meta-connected platforms showing a possible problem on DownDetector are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Outages of these Meta services seem to be heavily concentrated in New York and California. So far we have not seen any comment from the company. On Meta’s Status and outages of Meta business products page, Ads Manager is showing major disruptions. The Messenger API for Instagram also shows major disruptions. Back on March 5th, millions of users on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger reported problems accessing the site before the issue was finally resolved.

As we approached midnight on the East Coast, Facebook and Instagram saw a huge decline in new complaints on DownDetector although Google’s YouTube has now been flagged as a problem website. We will be monitoring the situation and will update this story if necessary.

Questions & Answers

Q.

Which specific regions of the United States are most affected by these outages?

A.

Outages across Meta services appear to be heavily concentrated in New York and California. The article mentions problems along both the East and West Coasts of the U.S. For Facebook and Instagram.

Q.

Have Meta's business products also experienced disruptions during this period?

A.

Yes, Meta’s Ads Manager is showing major disruptions, according to Meta’s Status and outages page. The Messenger API for Instagram is also experiencing significant issues.

Q.

What proportion of Instagram users reported issues with the app, server connection, and login?

A.

For Instagram, 55% of complaints were about the app itself. Another 33% concerned a server connection problem, and 12% of users reported an inability to log in to the service.

Q.

How did the number of complaints for Facebook and Instagram change on DownDetector during the evening?

A.

Instagram complaints soared from 62 at 7:01 pm ET to 11,965 by 9:47 pm ET. Facebook complaints rose from 49 at 7:02 pm ET to 650 by 9:48 pm ET.

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