Meta revealed that the massive outage that affected Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger was caused by “technical issues,” but has not shared exactly what the “issues” are.
Platforms owned by Mark Zuckerberg were down for at least two and a half hours on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of users unable to access their accounts.
A Facebook expert told DailyMail.com that its internal systems were down at the time with Meta’s service dashboard showing “major outages” for many of its services.
An internal issue would disrupt connections, similar to what happened in 2021, when all Meta platforms were down for seven hours.
Meta revealed that the massive outage that affected Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger was caused by “technical issues,” but has not shared exactly what the “issues” are.
Andy Stone, director of communications at Meta, posted on X about an hour and a half after users reported problems: ‘Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. “We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone affected and apologize for any inconvenience.”
However, the post attracted many users who asked for an explanation of what was behind the problems.
Stone has not yet responded to any comments.
While it is unclear what internal tools may have caused the disruption, such technologies are the backbone of organizations.
They are internal software developed and used within an organization to optimize processes, automate repetitive tasks, and provide employees with the information they need to make informed decisions.
Meta Communications Director Andy Stone posted to X about 1.5 hours after users reported issues
A small mistake, like adding the wrong code or command, could have taken Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger out of service.
That’s what triggered the seven-hour outage in 2021, which led to Zuckerberg losing around $7 billion amid the carnage.
“Our engineering teams learned that configuration changes to the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that disrupted this communication,” Facebook shared about the 2021 issues.
“This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, halting our services.”
DownDetector, which monitors online outages, showed that hundreds of thousands in the US alone had problems with Facebook and tens of thousands reported the same with Instagram, while Messenger had a few thousand reports of problems.
In addition to the US, the outage affected the UK, parts of Europe, China, Australia and Mexico, causing Meta’s share price to fall.
However, Meta has yet to tell the world what caused today’s outage.
The issues appeared around 10:20 am ET (3:20 pm GMT) and affected both apps and websites, although Meta’s WhatsApp was not affected.
Angry users found themselves suddenly banned from their accounts, making them think they had been hacked and their personal data stolen.
Meanwhile, Instagram’s news feed started displaying an error message.
The majority of problem reports cited problems with the apps: 72 percent for Facebook, 64 percent for Instagram, and 50 percent for Messenger.
DownDetector, which monitors online outages, showed that hundreds of thousands in the US alone were having problems with Facebook and tens of thousands reported the same with Instagram, while Messenger had a few thousand reports of problems.
Along with the US, the outage reached the UK, parts of Europe, China, Australia and Mexico, causing Meta’s share price to fall.
Users took to X (Twitter) to complain about the outage and share memes, much to the delight of owner Elon Musk.
Some people who experienced problems initially thought their accounts might have been hacked, but there are over 80,000 posts on X about Facebook and Instagram being down.
Users flocked to X (Twitter) to complain about the outage and share memes, much to the delight of owner Elon Musk.
Some people who had problems initially thought their accounts might have been hacked, but there are over 80,000 posts on X about Facebook and Instagram going down.
Musk responded to Meta’s outage with a post on X: “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are up.”
DailyMail.com also found that two-factor authentication (2FA), which sends an SMS message with a code to a user’s phone to log in, was not working.
While the Facebook tipster told DailyMail.com that the issue was due to internal tools, the public has shared their speculation about X.
Some suggested the outage is a “cyberattack” since it is occurring on Super Tuesday, which is when several states will hold presidential primaries.
Jake Moore, technology expert and security advisor at ESET, said a cyberattack is unlikely but not impossible.
“Facebook has a history of going down, but this could be due to a long list of reasons,” he told MailOnline.
“While it is highly unlikely that this is a cyberattack, it can never be completely ruled out, but it is much more likely that it is just another internal network issue.”
Kerri Lisenbigler, editor of TheRevOpsTeam, said the outage was an “annoyance” but probably “nothing too serious.”
“It’s not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last,” he told MailOnline.
‘Large platforms like Facebook and Instagram (and now Threads) handle a huge amount of traffic and data every hour of the day.
‘This means that a minor glitch or human error in the server room can easily turn into an outage affecting millions of users.
“These things are only cause for concern if the Meta teams don’t get everything back up and running within a few hours, then people will start speculating about the possibility of a cyberattack.”