Social media giant Meta experienced a massive outage across several of its platforms on Tuesday, affecting Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, but it was “resolved shortly” after users began reporting problems, AFP reported.

“Today, a technical problem prevented users from accessing some of our services. We have resolved this issue as quickly as possible for everyone affected and apologize for any inconvenience caused,” band spokesperson Andy Stone said on X (formerly Twitter) less than an hour after confirming the break.

The problems appear to have started around 5pm on Tuesday, when users reported being suddenly kicked out of their Facebook and Facebook Messenger accounts without being able to log back in.

Users reported that the Facebook platform told them that they had entered the wrong password when trying to re-login to their accounts.

Downdetector, which monitors technical problems on digital platforms, recorded up to 580,000 user messages for Facebook worldwide and up to 92,000 for Instagram around 15:30 GMT.

“We are aware of an issue affecting connectivity with Facebook. Our engineering teams are actively working to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” the California-based group said on its website, referring to possible operational issues.

Every month, almost 4 billion people use at least one of the group’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp).

A wave of jokes on X

Social media users turned to “X” after Facebook and Instagram appeared to be down again on Tuesday night, posting many jokes and quips about Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company.

“If you’re reading this message, it’s because our servers are up,” X owner Elon Musk joked, while the platform’s account posted: “We know why you’re all here right now.”

Past failures

Platforms regularly experience momentary failures, but the biggest ones remind us of the importance they take on in our daily lives.

WhatsApp, the wildly popular messaging service bought by Facebook in 2014 for over $19 billion, suffered a major crash in October 2022.

Last year, also in October, four of the group’s services suffered an unprecedented outage, with Downdetector recording more than 5.6 million messages from around the world in one hour.

The incident dealt a double blow to Mark Zuckerberg’s company at a time when it was already grappling with revelations from Frances Haugen, a former engineer who accused the group of putting “profits” ahead of user safety.

This oft-repeated phrase has plagued the company ever since it was renamed Meta. (photo: Rokas Tenys, Dreamstime.com)