October 4th, 13h EST.
In a massive outage, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook have all gone down.
The three applications, all of which are owned by Facebook and run on common infrastructure, ceased operating altogether soon before 5 p.m. Facebook Workplace and other products from the same family of applications have also ceased operating.
Visitors to the Facebook website were greeted with an error page or a notice stating that their browser was unable to connect. The WhatsApp and Instagram applications were still functional, but no new information was shown, including any messages sent or received during the outage.
Instagram has shared a message on Twitter about the outage. ” Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it! #instagramdown ”
The firm is frequently opaque regarding the origins of any problems, and it seldom explains them even after they have been resolved. It experienced its worst outage in years in 2019, for example, and merely stated that it had “caused a problem” during “regular maintenance operations.”
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg stated in a leaked transcript released by The Verge in 2019 that such disruptions are a “huge problem.” Any issues can drive users to switch to rivals instead, he added, adding that regaining trust and getting people back on Facebook’s platforms might take “months” if they return at all.
A corporate spokesman apologized for the issue but offered no further details.
“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,” spokesperson Andy Stone said on Twitter. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”