Users throughout the world had trouble logging into their Gmail, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram accounts on Tuesday night. About 500,000 Facebook users and 50,000 Instagram users had login and access problems, according to outage tracker Downdetector. Ten thousand more users complained about Facebook Messenger issues.
Social media users responded to the unexpected outage by uploading memes and updates. According to Downdetector, the blackout affecting all Google and Meta-owned apps happened at approximately nine o’clock IST.
Amidst the flood of memes, Elon Musk, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), also joined the conversation, taking a dig at Meta. “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working,” Musk tweeted, poking fun at the outage.
Musk also shared a meme in response to Meta Communications Director Andy Stone’s tweet post-outage. X’s official handle also chimed in, humorously acknowledging the situation with a tweet, “We know why you’re all here right now.”
In response, Meta’s Stone said, “We are aware that certain users are experiencing difficulties utilizing our services. We are currently addressing this.” Later on, he expressed his regret for any trouble caused and confirmed that the issue had been fixed.
After an hour, less than 80,000 users were still reporting problems on Facebook, and both Instagram and Facebook were back online. The outage serves as a reminder of how reliant on these networks people are and how these disruptions, no matter how brief, affect millions of users globally.