Facebook and Instagram experienced worldwide shutdown, impacting half a million users

Users around the reported login and timeout problems on Tuesday while trying to access their Facebook and Instagram social media platforms, continuously receiving a “failure to load” message.

Netizens claim that their Facebook sessions were closed suddenly while using both mobile devices and desk top computers, with the apps repeatedly asking users for their username and password.

Instagram users also realized that they could not enter their accounts, see stories, or update the main tab.

Tech monitoring site DownDetector reported over 461,000 outages at 10:37 a.m. at the peak of the problem. Instagram had more than 70,000 reported outages.

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

All platforms appear to be fully functional now, although some users say they are having issues with logging back in due to the two-factor login protocol.

Memes quickly began to abound on X, where many netizens thought their accounts had been hacked.

Cuando se caen Facebook e Instagram: pic.twitter.com/JOUjEvRAXf

— BANDIDOS (@Bandidosfrasess) March 5, 2024

Yo pensando que me hackearon Facebook e Instagram pic.twitter.com/csL3bEb4HK

— El Guarromántico (@Guarromantico_) March 5, 2024

TODO EL MUNDO llegando a twitter para comprobar que se ha caído instagram pic.twitter.com/WlrTs6kYAn

— said 𓅓 (@saidstetic) March 5, 2024