Social media users in India and around the world faced difficulties accessing popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Tuesday evening. Many reported issues logging in, being logged out unexpectedly, and encountering issues refreshing their feeds.
The problems began around 8:30 pm, with users encountering messages like “Log in again; session expired; couldn’t refresh feed” while using the Facebook and Instagram apps. Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, confirmed widespread issues with Facebook and Instagram, receiving over 300,000 and 20,000 reports respectively.
While the cause of the outage remains unknown, some users expressed concern about potential hacking or cyberattacks. On X, a user humorously posted, “Is Meta down or am I being hacked? My Instagram isn’t loading and my Facebook is also ‘session logged out.’” Another user echoed the sentiment, stating, “I thought my Facebook and Instagram got hacked for a second.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, acknowledged the issue through a statement on X, stating, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.”