Meta's platforms, Facebook and Instagram, faced widespread service disruptions, with users unable to log in and feeds failing to update.
Google also encountered login issues during this time.
Outage reports began at 3:30pm GMT and services started to recover around 5pm. Meta addressed the problems on Threads at 7pm GMT, apologizing for the inconvenience caused by a technical glitch, which was promptly resolved.
The interruption primarily affected
Facebook's login service, which also impacted Threads. During this period, notable concerns arose due to the outages’ overlap with the significant voting event, Super Tuesday, although no direct election interference or malicious activity was identified.
Both Meta and Google, who typically manage their own infrastructures independently, reported simultaneous login difficulties, hinting at a shared underlying issue.
Meta announced "major disruptions" to various services on their business status page. The outage extended to other websites relying on
Facebook login credentials.
Despite the broader issues, some Meta services like WhatsApp and
Facebook's ad transparency tools remained operational. Around 4:15pm GMT, even Meta's status page ceased updating.
Meta's spokesperson, Andy Stone, acknowledged the service difficulties and informed the public about the efforts to resolve the issues. Simultaneously, Google reported disruptions to its Ad Manager at approximately the same time but experienced fewer consumer service disruptions.
Speculation suggests a widespread internet problem as the cause, with reports of intermittent issues affecting other online services, such as Snapchat and Microsoft's Teams.
The incident was nonetheless not as catastrophic as
Facebook's 2021 outage, which resulted from a misconfiguration in the BGP protocol, causing the company's removal from the internet’s directory systems. The resolution was delayed as engineers struggled to regain server access both remotely and physically.
Google has been requested to provide further comments on the matter.