Over 300,000 users reported serious access issues when trying to access Facebook and Instagram Tuesday morning, according to Down Detector, an internet traffic observer.
Users had lodged 532,129 Facebook outage reports by 9:36 am alone while Instagram users lodged over 75,000 such reports, according to Down Detector. (RELATED: Middle East Attacks Could Be Behind Global Internet Slowdown)
Cybersecurity experts told The Pembrokeshire Herald that these outages were “unprecedented” in its scope and impact. These experts speculated that it was possible that a coordinated cyberattack on these platforms could be the core reason for the outages, the outlet noted.
A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official told reporters that they were aware of the outages but that “at this time we are not aware of any specific election nexus or any specific malicious cyber activity,” NBC News noted.
“We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now,” Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, tweeted.
We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024
Twitter users posted critical remarks that referenced the outage. “You got a lot more to fix now,” tweeted Milktea Alliance 817 W.S. on a post by Meta Newsroom that read “Sometimes you have to fix that typo.”
You got a lot more to fix now
— Milktea Alliance 8⃣1⃣7⃣ W.S. (@KamiliaHaraQoo) March 5, 2024
“maybe fix typo in your login backend for facebook …all is down…,” Frank j tweeted.
maybe fix typo in your login backend for facebook …all is down…
— Frank j (@adsense_mkt) March 5, 2024
Elon Musk also joined in the mockery by tweeting a meme with Stone’s comment.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2024
Meta released a status update about their business tools, developer platform, and transparency tools that displayed as of 10:40 am that most services had experienced major problems.