Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp down in mass Meta outage

Users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have experienced difficulties accessing them due to a mass global outage.

"Thanks for bearing with us! We're 99% of the way there - just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who've been affected by the outage," Meta, which owns the apps, said on X.

Over 22,000 people reported issues with Facebook on Wednesday evening and over 18,000 struggled to use WhatsApp, according to outage-tracking site Downdetector.

Problems with the apps were reported in the UK, parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the US.

The outages started around 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, according to Downdetector. Its numbers are based on reports of outages and the actual number of users affected may vary considerably.

Soon after users reported issues, Meta said it was aware of a "technical issue" that was "impacting some users' ability to access our apps" and said it was working to fix things as soon as possible.

A variety of issues were reported including not being able to use the apps at all or feeds not refreshing for certain users.

"We're aware of some issues accessing WhatsApp. We're 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," WhatsApp said around the same time.

Meta's platforms are some of the most popular in the world. Facebook has over three billion active monthly users.

The biggest outage Meta experienced was in 2021, when founder Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the disruption caused.

On that occasion, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram services went down for almost six hours.