It’s not just you! Instagram and Facebook are currently both down for some users, although not for all.
Users are finding error messages when visiting the main pages for both these platforms, with internet outage watchdogs reporting that the issues began around 1 pm ET (or 10 am PST) today.
This is far from the first outage that Meta has experienced, although it remains rare for the massive social platforms that many rely on for news and communication.
Generic Error Messages on Social Platforms
When visiting Instagram, some users are finding a message that simply says, “Sorry, something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can” alongside a “Go Back” button.
According to Tech.co lead writer Conor Cawley, who is experiencing the Facebook outage firsthand, Facebook’s home page features a similar message. This message says that Facebook is down for “required maintenance.” It also links to a page in which visitors can “learn more” — the main page for the platform’s help center.
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Reports are varied: I personally haven’t seen any error messages, but I am finding that Facebook loads slower for me.
17,000 Incidents Reported So Far
We don’t know exactly how widespread the outages are just yet.
According to internet watchdog Downdetector, which tracks outages by gathering reports from multiple sources, more than 12,000 incidents have been reported already for Facebook, with nearly 5,000 incidents reported for Instagram as well, as of the time of writing.
Occasional Outages Aren’t Uncommon
Should we be concerned? It’s hard to say. Granted, it’s never comforting when massive websites go offline — just ask anyone who regularly relies on the Internet Archive as the backbone of the internet. The Archive was offline for days following a cyberattack, and has just returned in the last 24 hours, in a read-only capacity.
Facebook and Instagram have gone offline in the past, and the last big outage was last March. Hopefully, this particular issue will be resolved quickly.
