On Tuesday evening, a impressive technical outage affected Meta’s basic platforms. social media users across several countries could not access their accounts or use basic features. The disruption began around 7:47 p.m. local time in New Zealand, with hundreds of reports of login failures and inaccessible profiles. Downdetector logged similar complaints from Australia and other parts of the world.
Many social media users saw a message saying their account was “temporarily unavailable due to a site issue,” while Meta said normal service would resume shortly. social media users began reporting connection problems at approximately 8:35 p.m.; thousands could not refresh feeds or upload stories, and some could not send messages. WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) was also affected, though the extent of the disruption varied by location.
Ynet Global News described the incident as widespread, citing more than 4,000 reports of difficulties, including failed logins and frozen feeds. Some users in Sydney reported social media problems earlier in the day, while others in New Zealand said they could not upload social media stories. About 90 minutes after the first reports, some users began seeing partial restoration.
Downdetector’s data showed complaint spikes across multiple continents. These figures reflect reports submitted by users and gathered from multiple sources, not a verified count of everyone affected. In a separate U.S. social media outage reported by Reuters on March 4, 2026, Downdetector recorded more than 11,000 reports at the peak. That figure fell to roughly 1,200 by 6:11 p.m. ET, while Meta’s status page also showed high disruption levels affecting social media Ads Manager.
Previous incidents have affected several Meta services and business tools at once. Reuters reported that social media and social media, along with WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ), were restored after an outage lasting more than two hours on June 16, 2023. Downdetector recorded nearly 20,000 combined reports at the peak, with the total falling below 500 by 6:30 p.m. ET. Problems with Meta’s advertising-management system were also reported and later resolved. That episode shows how disruptions can reach beyond account access and affect advertisers’ commercial tools.
A WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) outage in October 2022 prevented users in India from sending or receiving text and video messages. Downdetector logged more than 29,000 reports, including from Delhi and Mumbai, as well as Bengaluru; reports also came from Chennai and Kolkata. Service resumed after nearly two hours. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology requested an explanation, and WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) later submitted a report describing the disruption as a technical error. A spokesperson said: “The brief outage was a result of a technical error on our part and has now been resolved.”
Error messages and the inability to access services showed how much users rely on Meta’s platforms to communicate and share information. Meta said the outage was temporary and would be resolved soon, but did not specify its cause. For users in Spain and elsewhere, the incident highlights the platforms’ basic place in personal and professional communication.
As of the latest updates, most services were gradually returning to normal, although some users continued to experience intermittent issues. The company has not provided further details about the underlying problem or measures to prevent future incidents.
