Early Sunday morning, Facebook users noticed problems accessing the social media network. The site displayed a message stating accounts were “temporarily unavailable.” According to Downdetector, an outage tracker, difficulties began around 3:25 a.m. ET. Thousands of users experienced issues across the United States. Similar reports surfaced for Instagram, owned by Meta.
A message on Facebook indicated: “Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.” Problems emerged in Canada, Mexico, India, the UK, and parts of Europe.
“You’ve been temporarily banned.”
Some users found Facebook functioning on mobile devices but not on desktops. According to Downdetector, 63% of issues related to the website, 20% involved mobile devices, and 10% involved the app. On Reddit, one user initially encountered a message about a temporary ban before redirecting to a generic error page. Another faced issues, labeled “temporarily blocked for going too fast and overusing,” while merely refreshing the page.
Downdetector reported increasing problems with Instagram. The site noted that 44% related to the Feed or Timeline, 40% involved the app, and 12% concerned posting or publishing content. Users experienced difficulties loading feeds, sending messages, and viewing stories.
WhatsApp, another Meta platform, showed reports of messaging and app-related issues on Downdetector. Messaging issues accounted for 44%, app-related problems for 39%, and login challenges for 8%. However, issues with WhatsApp seemed less widespread compared to Facebook.
Meta’s history includes notable disruptions, such as the nearly six-hour global outage in October 2021. At that time, Meta cited a faulty configuration change affecting Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Engineers unintentionally disrupted data center communication.
In March 2024, Facebook and Instagram experienced a major outage. Threads and WhatsApp had lesser issues. Users logged out and couldn’t sign back in, while Instagram feeds didn’t refresh. Meta attributed the disruption to a technical issue but didn’t disclose details.
Currently, reported issues center on Facebook (including Messenger), Instagram, and WhatsApp, with no comparable problems for Threads or Meta’s other platforms like Meta Quest.
Christine Harrison, a digital designer, mentioned analysts suspect the outage connects to Facebook’s major system update. An analyst noted a planned update notification sent earlier and suggested a glitch as the likely cause. A software bug or configuration error during the process might explain widespread access problems. Meta has yet to confirm the exact cause.
Newsweek reached Meta by email, inquiring about the identified cause and resolution timeline. Editors Tobias Meyjes and Tony Phillips are monitoring this story, which will be updated accordingly.