Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other Facebook services were down for many for about an hour on Friday, but they seem to be recovering.
At one point, more than 119,000 users reported problems with Instagram on DownDetector. More than 25,000 users also reported problems with WhatsApp on DownDetector. Facebook Messenger was also affected, with more than 5,000 reports of DownDetector issues.
When I navigated to Instagram’s website during the break, I saw a white page with the message ‘5xx Server Error’. While the service was experiencing issues, I also downloaded Instagram to my phone again and tried to log in, but there was also an error.
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Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Facebook Gaming Twitter Account admitted it “There are currently a number of issues affecting Facebook products, including game streams.” According to the account, there are several teams working on the case.
There are currently a number of issues affecting Facebook products, including game streams. Several teams are working on it, and we will keep you posted whenever we can.
– Facebook Gaming (@FacebookGaming) 19 March 2021
As expected, the memes about the outage were strong on Twitter (which apparently seems to be following):
This is not the only recent blip in Facebook’s services: Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs declined in December. Facebook and Instagram also experienced major outages under Thanksgiving in 2019.
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