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All of Meta\u2019s platforms \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads \u2013\u00a0went down on Wednesday in a major outage that affected users around the world.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s systems suffered a major technical issue at around 6pm UK time, or 10 am local pacific time, according to tracking website Down Detector. Problems were widespread across markets, the site showed.<\/p>\n
Meta does not run official status pages for its user-facing apps. But it acknowledged the issues on some of its official accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, we know there\u2019s a technical issue impacting some people\u2019s ability to access Instagram,\u201d it wrote on the official Instagram page on X\/Twitter. \u201cWe\u2019re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and are sorry for any inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
WhatsApp\u2019s official page posted much the same status, saying it was \u201caware of some issues accessing\u201d the app.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actively working on a solution and starting to see a return to normal for most people. We expect things to be back to normal shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n
But they appeared to quickly recover at least partially and most of the company\u2019s apps appeared to be functioning as normal within the hour.<\/p>\n
Early on Thursday, Meta confirmed on X that it is \u201c99 per cent of the way\u201d to resolving the issue with only \u201csome last checks\u201d pending. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe apologise to those who\u2019ve been affected by the outage,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
WhatsApp and Instagram appeared to be back and functioning normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re back, happy chatting!\u201d WhatsApp said on its official X account.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndddd we\u2019re back \u2013 sorry for the wait, and thanks for bearing with us,\u201d Instagram said.<\/p>\n
Some accounts reported problems with specific parts of certain apps after the outage. While Meta runs its various apps as largely separate systems, they do share technical underpinnings that mean that large outages at the company tend to take them all down at the same time. As such, Meta outages can quickly take down apps that are individually used by hundreds of millions of people each day.<\/p>\n
In the past, Meta has spoken about bringing those apps more closely together, so that they are interoperable and users can for instance message between them. But it appears to have walked back that plan, apparently in the face of regulatory pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterSign up to our free IndyTech newsletter I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our\u00a0privacy policy All of Meta\u2019s platforms \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads \u2013\u00a0went down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n