Half million users hit by nationwide Meta outage on Facebook, Instagram platforms

Chris Benson
·1 min read
People walk by a sign on the Meta campus In Menlo Park, Calif., in 2022. On Tuesday, users on the three platforms owned by Meta experienced an hourslong glitch affecting half a million users. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
People walk by a sign on the Meta campus In Menlo Park, Calif., in 2022. On Tuesday, users on the three platforms owned by Meta experienced an hourslong glitch affecting half a million users. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI

March 5 (UPI) -- Users on the three platforms owned by social media giant Meta on Tuesday experienced an hourslong glitch in what was Meta's second major technical issue in nearly three years.

The platform's Facebook, Instagram and Threads experienced their own series of technical glitches, which started at about 10 a.m. Tuesday

A Meta spokesperson said over an hour later that a "technical issue" was what caused users -- as many as 500,000 on Facebook -- to have difficulty utilizing many of the platform's services.

"We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience," Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on X shortly after noon Eastern time.

The technical errors also affected about 50,000 Instagram users and another 10,000 on Facebook Messenger.

A workspace is dedicated to Meta in the International Media Center in Moscone Center in San Francisco in 2023. On Tuesday, over a half million Facebook users experienced technical errors for several hours, the social media giant reported. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
A workspace is dedicated to Meta in the International Media Center in Moscone Center in San Francisco in 2023. On Tuesday, over a half million Facebook users experienced technical errors for several hours, the social media giant reported. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI

By 3 p.m. EST, Meta reported that most of their issues had been resolved.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told CNN Tuesday that ahead of the Super Tuesday presidential primary elections "we are not aware of specific malicious cyber activity or any specific nexus to today's elections."

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp previously had experienced an outage in October 2021.