The outage of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Monday was one of the longest in Facebook history, stranding billions of users who rely on the social media giant and its apps for everything from connecting with friends to running businesses and logging into websites.
According to Downdetector.com, the social network and Facebook-owned platforms went down around 11:30 a.m. EDT Monday. Some users were able to access the platforms around 5:40 p.m., but not all functions were restored.
“To everyone who was affected by the outages on our platforms today: we’re sorry. We know billions of people and businesses around the world depend on our products and services to stay connected. We appreciate your patience as we come back online,”
says Facebook.
More than 20,000 people have reported that WhatsApp is not functioning properly for them. This error message is also displayed on web.whatsapp.com – 5xx Server Error. Instagram is also displaying the – 5xx Server Error – message.
An error message appears on the Facebook website. “Sorry, but something went wrong. We’re working on it and will have it fixed as soon as possible.”
The WhatsApp messaging app is unable to send or receive messages, and the messaging platforms of Instagram and Facebook are also unavailable.
Reuters and AFP have confirmed that users around the world are experiencing an outage. The outage has potentially impacted tens of millions of users.
The messaging app posted a statement on Twitter saying, “Mercury in retrograde got the best of us. We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and apologize for the inconvenience. #MessengerDown.”
Social media giant Facebook also issued a statement saying that all efforts are being taken to restore services affecting millions across the globe. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” Facebook said.
Instagram also posted a similar message via its official communications handle. “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,” it said.
Meanwhile the Chief Technology Officer of Facebook, Mike Schroepfer, tweeted a statement, “*Sincere* apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.”