A Meta outage affected Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

      Meta experienced a challenging Friday morning. A significant outage affected Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger for users globally, beginning just before 10am ET. By midday, recovery was underway, albeit unevenly across different regions.

      The issues seemed to start with WhatsApp and then extended to other services. Many Facebook users found themselves unexpectedly logged out, encountering messages such as “Query Error” or “Sorry, something went wrong,” and were unable to log back in. Some users could access the app but were unable to post, comment, react, search, or access Stories and Marketplace.

      Details from Down Detector

      The outage-tracking platform Down Detector recorded a notable surge in reports. Facebook was hit hardest, with over 130,000 issues reported; Instagram had around 9,500 notifications, while WhatsApp received significantly fewer reports. Most users indicated problems with the app itself, followed by login issues.

      These numbers are self-reported and reflect complaints rather than Meta’s internal data. Reports came from a wide range of locations beyond the US, including the Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, and South Africa, suggesting a widespread problem rather than a local issue.

      Impact on businesses

      The disruption affected more than just scrolling on social media. Meta's status page noted "high disruptions" across its business tools, including Facebook Ads Manager, the Messenger Platform, the Messenger API for Instagram, and the WhatsApp Business Platform. Advertisers faced difficulties in creating or editing ads, leading Meta to apologize for any inconvenience caused. The timing on a Friday made the situation particularly frustrating.

      Meta's acknowledgment

      Meta confirmed the outage on its status page, reporting “high disruptions” and stating that its engineering teams were “actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.” However, it did not specify the cause of the outage or the number of affected users. There has been no indication yet if it was due to a configuration error, infrastructure failure, or another reason.

      Recovery was in progress. Meta indicated that some services, like ad delivery, had been resolved, while others were “in the process of being restored.” For users, Facebook was returning to a more normal loading speed, and reports on Down Detector were decreasing; however, some users still experienced an empty Stories bar, outdated feeds, or “Try Again” error messages.

      The magnitude of the situation is significant: Meta’s applications serve billions, and even a few hours of downtime can have widespread effects on messaging, businesses, and logins far beyond just the social feed. This incident capped off an eventful day for Meta, which had also announced that it would provide free AI glasses to every blind US veteran earlier that morning. This is an ongoing story; updates will be provided as more information becomes available from Meta.