Meta shutdown July 19: Instagram and Facebook Meta experienced widespread outages on Sunday, with thousands of users around the world reporting problems logging in, posting and loading feeds. Real-time crash tracking data Downdetector showed a sharp increase in complaints between 12:45 and 16:15, indicating a widespread systemic problem rather than regional glitches.
According to Downdetector, as of 07:46 GMT, there were 4,808 complaints filed by Facebook users in the US, with 63% of those users experiencing problems accessing the website. A further 2,829 reports were made by Instagram users in the US who encountered problems with the apps as of 0818 GMT on Sunday. Reuters also reported that access to Facebook and Instagram was intermittent in Singapore.
Meta has not yet released an official statement on this matter. While new reports continued to come in, Downdetector’s live map showed that the number of new complaints was starting to decline.
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What were the main problems noted?
1. Application crashes and loading failures. Many users reported that the application crashed the moment it was opened. Some have seen “Instagram has stopped” errors or got stuck when viewing cached versions of their feeds with “Failed to update feed” messages.
“My Instagram is not working, that is, its home page does not open. It opens for one second and closes automatically. What’s the problem? one user posted on Downdetector. Another added: “My private messages and chat window are not showing; they are just loading.”
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2. Login problems. Users have reported getting stuck in verification loops, two-factor authentication failures, and “something went wrong” or “session expired” errors.
3. Errors in publications and stories. Complaints included problems trying to load posts, stories, and videos. In many cases, the app would open, but new channels and stories would not load completely.