Major Meta Outage: Facebook, Instagram, and Threads Go Down

Meta’s flagship social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, experienced a significant outage today, frustrating millions of users worldwide. Error messages greeted users attempting to access the platforms, with some noting a message stating, “We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.”

Reports of the disruption flooded platforms like Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit, where users sought updates and vented their frustrations. Downdetector, a website tracking real-time outages, showed dramatic spikes in reported issues across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Instagram alone logged more than 70,000 issue reports, while Facebook saw over 100,000.

We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.

— Meta (@Meta) December 11, 2024

This widespread outage marks another instance of Meta’s platforms going offline. A similar issue in March this year disrupted access to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Additionally, a major outage in October 2022 caused significant interruptions to Facebook and Instagram, highlighting the recurring nature of such incidents.

Meta has yet to provide an official comment on the cause of the outage or an estimated timeline for resolution. These recurring issues have raised concerns about the reliability of Meta’s infrastructure, especially as its apps form a vital communication backbone for billions of users globally.

The outage affected not just individual users but also businesses and content creators who rely on these platforms for outreach and operations. Threads, Meta’s newer platform aimed at competing with X, is still building its user base but was equally impacted by the downtime.

Users took to other social platforms to express their frustration and humorously speculate about the cause of the outage. Memes, jokes, and updates from affected users flooded X and Reddit as people coped with the temporary loss of Meta’s digital ecosystem.

As the situation unfolds, Meta will face increasing pressure to ensure the reliability of its services. For now, users can only wait for Meta to restore access and provide an explanation for this latest disruption.