Facebook down: FB, Instagram users report issues with accounts

UPDATE: Meta says access to Facebook, Instagram and other platforms has been restored after technical issues.

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Is Facebook down? Is Instagram down?

Meta users across the U.S. reported issues accessing their Facebook, Instagram, FB Messenger and Threads accounts Tuesday morning. More than 500,000 outages were reported on DownDetector.com around 10:30 a.m. ET.

Users reported being logged out of their accounts without an option to log back in, or their passwords not being recognized. The apps and desktop websites are both seeing issues, including reports of an inability to reset passwords or use two-factor security to login.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has not said what could be causing the issue or when services might resume.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head of communications, confirmed the issues on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company is “working on this now.”

#FacebookDown and #InstagramDown became trending topics on X.

“I thought my Facebook and Instagram got hacked for a second,” one X user tweeted.

“Love that I can always count on twitter to confirm that Meta is down and we’ve all been logged out of facebook and Instagram isn’t working,” another wrote.

Some Facebook and Instagram users reported being able to access their accounts about an hour later. Less than 100,000 outages were reported at 11:30 a.m., according to Down Detector.

Meta announced earlier this year that it would be issuing a major update in April 2024, removing its Facebook News” tab from Facebook for U.S. and Australian users. It’s unclear if the pending change could cause any issues, but Meta said the update would not affect any of its other products and services.

“This is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most. As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short form video,” Meta said in February. “The number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. has dropped by over 80% last year. We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content — they come to connect with people and discover new opportunities, passions and interests. As we previously shared in 2023, news makes up less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, and is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people.”