Meta’s social media platforms are back up Tuesday after a widespread outage appeared to block thousands of users from logging onto their accounts.
Facebook and Meta users started seeing problems around 10 a.m. Eastern time, based on reports to Downdetector.com, a site that tracks online glitches. The issues peaked with more than 570,000 Facebook users and more than 90,000 Instagram users reporting outages at roughly 10:30 a.m. The total number of people affected probably was higher, because Downdetector tracks only users who take the time to file a report on the site.
Some users found that when they tried to log on to those social media networks, they were told their passwords didn’t work. Many users got a message saying they had entered an incorrect password, leading them to believe incorrectly that the problem was on their end rather than with Meta.
“My first concern was whether my account was secure,” Facebook user Spencer Ross said. “Since I couldn’t seem to change my password, I was then concerned if maybe there was a [two-factor authentication] hack, as well.”
Meta spokesman Andy Stone posted on X shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday: “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.”
A little more than an hour later, Stone said that “a technical issue” had caused some users to have difficulty using the company’s services. “We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” he said.
The company has not responded to additional questions about the reason for the glitch.
Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – isn’t known for having many outages, though in 2019 the company had an outage that interrupted service for nearly 24 hours.
(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Naomi Nix
