Meta platforms experience widespread outage, users locked out

In what seems to be a world-wide disruption that has left users worldwide grappling with unexpected logouts and login failures, Facebook, along with several other Meta platforms, is currently experiencing widespread outages.

This service interruption has not only affected Facebook but has also impacted Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and Threads, indicating a more extensive issue within Meta’s network infrastructure.

According to reports, users attempting to access these platforms were unexpectedly logged out of their accounts. Subsequent attempts to log back in were met with error messages indicating that their login sessions had expired, and their credentials, despite being correct, were rejected. Unlike typical service outages where a “skeleton” version of the site might still be accessible, users are being completely shut out, accompanied by a prompt indicating an expired login session.

The outage extends beyond social media, affecting Meta’s virtual reality offerings as well. Meta Quest headset users found themselves signed out, disrupting access to virtual reality experiences, including Horizon Worlds.

As the outage unfolded, more than 350,000 incident reports were logged on Down Detector, a popular service that tracks website and app outages.

Social media platforms, particularly Twitter (formerly known as X), have been inundated with user reports and complaints, reflecting the widespread impact of the service disruption.

However, the volume of reports concerning Meta’s suite of apps dwarfs those related to other platforms, underscoring the severity of the outage.

Meta has yet to issue a detailed explanation for the cause of the outage or provide an estimated timeline for when services might be restored.

Users are advised not to change their passwords, as the login failures are not indicative of a phishing attack or security breach but rather a result of the ongoing service disruption.