Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp — suffered a significant worldwide outage on December 11, 2024, starting at approximately 12:40 PM ET. Millions of users reported issues accessing the platforms through their websites and apps, with varying degrees of disruption depending on the region.

Users attempting to access Facebook encountered error messages, including “Sorry, something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.” WhatsApp users faced delays or failures in sending messages.

According to Downdetector, the outage saw a surge in reports within minutes of its onset. Meta acknowledged the disruption on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the outage began: “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.”

Instagram released a similar statement, acknowledging a “technical issue impacting some people’s ability to access Instagram,” and that they were “working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible”.

Partial restoration of services began around 1:20 PM ET, but users in certain regions continued to experience issues throughout the afternoon. By 7:21 PM ET, Meta provided another update on X, stating: “Thanks for bearing with us! We’re 99% of the way there — just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who’ve been affected by the outage.”

Meta, Instagram, and WhatsApp’s X accounts have since announced that they are 100% back online.

Meta has not disclosed the root cause of this outage, but it’s not the only major one in recent history. A global DNS outage in 2021, attributed to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) issue, left users unable to access Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. In March 2024 an undisclosed “technical issue” caused users to be logged out of their accounts and unable to log back in.

While likely not a major blow for the company, it’s an uncomfortable event following the $1.4 billion settlement between Meta and Texas to resolve privacy violations. Not to mention a $15 million dollar fine by the Korean government for similar violations regarding Facebook.