New Delhi: Thousands of social media users across India and globally experienced major technical disruptions on Sunday afternoon after Meta’s primary networks, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, were hit by a widespread server outage. The service interruption heavily impacted desktop and browser versions of Facebook, leaving users completely unable to log into their profiles or refresh their timelines. According to independent outage-monitoring platform Downdetector, complaints began surging rapidly during the morning and afternoon hours, with severe connectivity blocks reported in major Indian cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Pune.
Desktop users attempting to log in were widely greeted with an error message stating, “Account Temporarily Unavailable. Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue,” which assured users that the problem would be resolved shortly. While the web browser interface faced severe operational blocks, individual experiences varied by device, with several users reporting that the official Facebook mobile application continued to function normally. Beyond the main social network, Meta’s business infrastructure also faced a brief shutdown, as tools like Business Suite and Ads Manager temporarily went offline.
The technical disruption extended to Meta’s photo-sharing platform, Instagram, where users registered a different pattern of system failures. Multiple reports indicated that Instagram feeds failed to load new content after refreshing, displaying a warning notice reading, “Sorry, something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can”. Flocks of frustrated users migrated to alternative networks like X to report the glitch and voice concerns over potential account suspensions. While Meta has not yet issued an official statement regarding the precise root cause of the server issues, core services gradually returned to normal after a few hours of intermittent disruption.
