Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads down: Meta apps suffer major outage, but Whatsapp still functioning

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads was hit by a worldwide outage today that left users in Ireland unable to access their accounts.

The outage appeared to be an international one with reports of the services being down in multiple countries.

Facebook and Instagram are used by a majority of Irish people, according to recent surveys.

The problems appeared to have started at around 3pm today, according to Down Detector, a website that tracks internet outages. Between them, more than 30,000 people reported problems with Instagram and Facebook. All three affected sites are owned by Meta, which also operates WhatsApp - though that appeared to be working fine.

On Twitter, now X, people reported that both platforms weren’t loading. Instagram was showing users an error message that read “couldn’t load posts,” while Facebook said “session logged out.”

As of 5.30pm, all four Meta platforms appear to be back online and functioning for Irish users.

In a statement on X, Andy Stone said: “Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

While Meta has not yet said what caused the outage, several IT security experts say that it does not break the hallmarks of a hack.

In 2021, Meta’s four major platforms went offline for almost six hours, causing Mark Zuckerberg to apologise. Meta platforms are relied on in Ireland for more than social interaction, with thousands of small companies basing a large chunk of their online business activities on the services.

Meta's last financial reports revealed a rise in usage of its products to over three billion people.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 5th March 2024