Meta Platforms’ Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Threads encountered widespread outages on Tuesday (Mar 5), affecting tens of thousands of users, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. The platform received over 300,000 reports of outages for Facebook, while Instagram saw more than 20,000 reports, indicating a substantial disruption in service. Downdetector.com collects outage reports from various sources, including user submissions, to monitor the status of online platforms.
Despite these widespread issues, Meta has yet to respond to a Reuters request for comment regarding the outage. The cause of the disruption remains unclear, leaving users without access to these popular social media platforms. Users have reported being randomly signed out of Facebook, with password rejections upon attempting to log back in, and similar issues have been experienced on Instagram, Messenger, and Threads. Even Meta Quest headsets are experiencing sign-out issues, affecting functionality in Horizon Worlds, a part of the metaverse.
With more than 300,000 reports on Down Detector and widespread complaints on Twitter and other platforms, users eagerly await updates on when the services will return to normal. Meta has been contacted for a statement, and further information will be provided as it becomes available.
