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The dust settles
One of the most interesting aspects of an outage like this, especially when it affects multiple services, is how it can have a knock-on effect across seemingly unrelated platforms. When people can't access their favorite social networks and encrypted communication platforms, they sometimes look for other culprits.
Services like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Spectrum also received their share of outage reports in the same time period, but it's unlikely they were responsible or even affected. It's just that when you can't access Facebook, you start to wonder if your cell service or Internet service is down. Generally it is not.
A hard trip
WhatsApp may have had the toughest ride with two massive spikes in outage reports, according to Down Detector. Being a private messaging app, it's hard to know what people were experiencing or what they were (and couldn't say) about the outage.
Based on the current chart, WhatsApp also seems to be recovering.
The uncertainty of everything
This is the kind of platform outage that leaves you wondering. The systems work, but inconsistently. I was posting, I thought, but I was pretty sure no one was seeing it. I finally posted a poll on Threads to see if the system was still down or if social engagement would continue.
With exactly two votes (at the time of writing) it is clear that not everything is working as it should.
Posted by @lanceulanoff
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a recovery
As of 3:58 pm ET, most of Meta's major services appeared to be recovering. Down Detector showed a significant drop in outage reports
Instagram notifications reappeared and Threads was, for the most part, accepting image uploads.
how it started
We first noticed the outage in Threads where the platform started rejecting image uploads. Soon, the feeds began to disappear.
Subsequent checks on Instagram and Facebook showed similar instabilities.
In case you don't know, Threads is owned by Instagram, which is also owned by Meta. The new social media platform has grown rapidly over the past 16 months and has remained remarkably stable. In recent months, its biggest challenge has come not from infrastructure but from Bluesky, which while a bit older than Threads, recently rose to prominence during a mass exodus from X (formerly Twitter). For what it's worth, Bluesky and X don't seem to be affected by any major internet issues.
AWS has a role here
As we mentioned, AWS, at least according to Down Detector, also had problems in the early afternoon. Since we've heard rumors that other services outside of Meta's orbit are also having problems, this could be a bigger problem than one company's servers. AWS serves countless websites and online services.
