Meta have resolved an outage suffered by Facebook, Instagram and Threads after being hit for hours by a worldwide outage

Meta resolved an outage suffered by Facebook, Instagram and Threads on Tuesday, concluding a service issue that had prevented some users from logging on to the sites for several hours, Meta said in a statement.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services," Meta Communications Director Andy Stone said in a post on X. "We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

Social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are back online after a “technical issue” caused a widespread outage on Tuesday, with users logged out of their accounts and unable to load the sites as normal.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the website Downdetector, which tracks online outages, to report issues with Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Threads.

More than 300,000 reports of outages on Facebook were made between about 3.20am and 4am, while Instagram users flagged more than 120,000 outages on the site at about the same time.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head of communications, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the problem had been resolved, and that it had been caused by a “technical issue”.

EARLIER TODAY

Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience. https://t.co/ybyyAZNAMn

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024

Facebook and Instagram have been hit by a worldwide outage that has left potentially millions of people unable to access their accounts.

Users found they were mysteriously logged out and not able to log back in, or could not open the app at all.

The outage appears to be global, according to tracking website Down Detector.

This morning some users have had problems loggin in on their desktop while access through mobile platforms seem to have been restored.

Elon Musk mocked Meta on Tuesday after the company saw major outages on its platforms Instagram and Facebook.

But it’s not the first time the Tesla and X boss has butted heads with fellow tech giant Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

Last year, in a bizarre online feud, the pair went back and forth on social media, baiting each other about the prospect of a cage fight, before the argument seemed to peter out. In November Mr Musk appeared to reignite the feud.

Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience. https://t.co/ybyyAZNAMn
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024