Meta resolves outage that left Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, more unavailable for hours

Facebook and Instagram down statuses on downdetector.com
(Image credit: Nick Sutrich / Android Central)

Update (Dec. 12, 1:00 p.m. ET): Meta resolves major outage.

What you need to know

  • Users reported issues accessing various Meta apps and platforms Wednesday, Dec. 11.
  • Meta acknowledged the "technical issue" in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
  • Though the company said it was working "as quickly as possible" to restore service, it did not provide a concrete timetable for a fix.

Meta apps, services, and platforms are currently experiencing a widespread outage, the company confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Users started experiencing issues in the afternoon on Wednesday, Dec. 11, as evidenced by various social media posts on working platforms and by the Downdetector — a site that tracks interruptions to major services. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, Messenger, and Oculus are a few platforms that appear to be affected by the outage.

"We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps," the company said in the post. "We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience."

The problems can cause some Meta platforms to be inaccessible, load slowly, or show older posts. Multiple members of the Android Central team experienced issues with Meta apps. However, the number of Downdetector reports have slowly decreased over the last hour, indicating that Meta is making progress restoring service.

"We know there’s a technical issue impacting some people’s ability to access Instagram," the official Instagram account posted on X. "We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and are sorry for any inconvenience."

The issues appear to be extremely widespread, with Downdetector showing over 70,000 reports of Instagram being unavailable for users today. The situation is worse for Facebook, which has been reported down for over 100,000 users, according to Downdetector.

This isn't the first time Meta's services have faced significant service interruptions. In March 2024, nearly all Meta platforms went offline for a brief period.

Update

Meta confirmed that the outage that left hundreds of thousands of users without access to its services has been resolved as of Wednesday evening. In a post on X, the company provided the following update: "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."

Brady Snyder
Contributor

Brady is a tech journalist for Android Central, with a focus on news, phones, tablets, audio, wearables, and software. He has spent the last three years reporting and commenting on all things related to consumer technology for various publications. Brady graduated from St. John's University with a bachelor's degree in journalism. His work has been published in XDA, Android Police, Tech Advisor, iMore, Screen Rant, and Android Headlines. When he isn't experimenting with the latest tech, you can find Brady running or watching Big East basketball.