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Meta outage hits users
Facebook and Instagram users reported international outages on Sunday, leaving them unable to access their feeds, according to two internet watchdogs and a CNN check of the platforms.
“More than 23,000 users reported problems with Facebook in the United States alone between 3:44 and 5:02 a.m EDT Sunday”
East Idaho NewsEast Idaho News said more than 23,000 users reported problems with Facebook in the United States alone between 3:44 and 5:02 a.m. EDT Sunday, while DownDetector data showed at least 18,000 reports flagged problems with Instagram during the same timeframe.
20 MinutenEast Idaho News reported that affected Facebook users received an error message saying their account was “currently unavailable due to a site issue,” and were asked to try logging in again “in a few minutes.”
The Jerusalem Post said users reported login failures, inaccessible accounts, and difficulties loading content, with messages stating accounts were temporarily unavailable due to a site error on Facebook and reports of core functions failing on Instagram.
NetBlocks, an internet watchdog that monitors worldwide internet access, said the Facebook and Instagram outages were unrelated to any country-level internet disruption, according to East Idaho News.
Error messages and monitoring
Multiple outlets described the same “Account Temporarily Unavailable” experience, with The Independent saying users attempting to log into Facebook on desktop were encountering an “Account Temporarily Unavailable” error message.
Firstpost reported that during the outage, affected Facebook users received an error message stating that their account was “currently unavailable due to a site issue,” and were asked to try logging in again after a few minutes.
20MinutosFirstpost also said nearly 48,080 reports had been filed by Facebook users in the United States as of 07:46 GMT, with around 63% of users experiencing issues with the app and website.
For Instagram, Firstpost reported that nearly 2,829 reports were filed by Instagram users in the US, who reported problems with the app as of 08:18 GMT on Sunday.
East Idaho News added that WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, appeared not to experience problems during the outage, even as Facebook and Instagram were affected.
Scope, status, and uncertainty
While some reporting suggested the disruption was limited to certain access methods, MyBroadband said the issues appear to be limited to the browser instances of the platforms and that the Facebook and Instagram mobile apps appeared to be functioning normally.
“the issues appear to be limited to the browser instances of the platforms”
MyBroadbandMyBroadband reported that attempting to access Facebook via a web browser presented users with an “Account Temporarily Unavailable” error, while Instagram was accessible on the web but new content would not load or took longer than usual to buffer.
MyBroadband also said Meta’s Business Suite and Ads Manager tools were offline, despite the official Meta Status page indicating there were no problems.
Newsweek reported that problems first began around 3:25 a.m. ET, with thousands of users reporting problems in the United States, and said a message on Facebook read: “Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.”
Newsweek added that Meta had not confirmed the cause of the issues, and that the outage appeared to have been largely resolved as reports began to decline about one to two hours after the disruption was first detected.