Facebook and Instagram Experiencing Outages—Discover the Reasons Behind Them

Facebook and Instagram Experiencing Outages—Discover the Reasons Behind Them

Facebook and Instagram Bounce Back: What Caused the Outage on March 5?

If you experienced trouble accessing your Instagram feed or found yourself unexpectedly logged out of Facebook on March 5, you weren't alone. Both platforms experienced downtime, sparking concerns among users about potential hacking incidents. But what really caused the disruption, and are our accounts safe.

Meta's Facebook and Instagram Hit a Snag: What Happened and When?

The glitches in Meta's services, Facebook and Instagram, began around 10:45 am EST, leaving users unable to access the apps. Personally, I attempted to log into my Facebook account on my MacBook at 11:26 am EST, only to be prompted to log back in. Simultaneously, my Instagram iPhone app failed to load, displaying a frustrating "couldn't load posts" message.

Reports flooded in from around 500,000 Facebook users encountering similar issues, with Down Detector indicating a notable spike in complaints during mid-morning.

Are Facebook and Instagram Victims of Hacking? Not Likely.

Rest assured, it appears Facebook and Instagram haven't fallen prey to hackers. Instead, both services are experiencing an outage. Jake Moore, a cybersecurity expert at ESET, notes that while Facebook has a history of going down, the causes can vary widely. He reassures that a cyber-attack is "highly unlikely," though he acknowledges it's impossible to completely rule out.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, acknowledged the issue via its former platform, X, previously known as Twitter, stating that they are actively addressing the problem."

A Meta Representative Shares an Update: "Earlier today, a technical glitch caused difficulties for some users in accessing our services. We swiftly resolved the issue for all affected individuals and extend our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

During the downtime of Facebook and Instagram, users flocked to X, formerly Twitter, for their social media fix. This prompted a cheeky response from Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, who jokingly remarked, "If you're reading this post, it's because our servers are working.

Cisco's ThousandEyes Internet Intelligence Team Dives into Meta Outage

Experts from Cisco's ThousandEyes Internet Intelligence team have delved into the recent Meta outage, shedding light on what transpired.

According to their analysis, the outage likely stemmed from an issue with a backend service, such as authentication. Despite Meta's web servers remaining reachable and responsive, users encountered errors upon attempting to log in, pointing to backend service issues as the culprit.

By around 16:50 UTC (8:50 am PST), ThousandEyes observed gradual recovery of Meta services, with many users regaining access to the application. The incident appeared fully resolved by 18:40 UTC (10:40 am PST), according to the researchers.

However, on March 6, some users reported ongoing difficulties accessing their accounts, particularly related to two-factor authentication (2FA) issues, with SMS codes failing to work. Efforts to reach out to Facebook's owner for an update on the situation are underway.

When Facebook and Instagram are back online, you'll need to log in again. It's a good opportunity to enhance your security by using a password manager like 1Password or Bitwarden. According to Moore, if you've forgotten your password, you can generate a new, unique one via a password manager when prompted to log back in.

Additionally, consider enabling two-factor authentication for added protection against hackers accessing your Facebook and Instagram accounts.