Instagram and Facebook experienced a worldwide outage on Friday afternoon, leaving thousands of users unable to access their accounts. According to Down Detector, issues began shortly after 2.30pm, with over 20,000 problems reported—17,000 related to Facebook and 3,000 to Instagram.
Users reported difficulties including the app not loading, inability to log in, and server connection errors. Specifically, 68% of Instagram complaints cited app issues, 12% login problems, and 10% server connection failures. Many noted that while the main feed loaded, Stories and direct messages did not work.
Facebook users also faced disruptions, particularly with the main app and Messenger. Over half of reports involved app issues, while a third struggled to log in. Some users expressed concern about being hacked, but no security breach has been confirmed.
By 3.15pm, services appeared to return to normal. Neither Meta nor its platforms have issued an official statement regarding the cause of the outage.
