Instagram and Facebook, two of the most popular social media platforms, experienced an outage today, December 23. As usual, users quickly rushed to X, formerly Twitter, to find out if the applications were indeed down. The outage put an unprecedented halt to the users and their social lives.
Instagram goes down
In a short amount of time, Downdetector data revealed a dramatic rise in outage complaints, suggesting a general problem rather than isolated local interruptions. Users in areas of Europe, the United States, India, and other countries submitted reports indicating a worldwide service outage.
The majority of complaints on Downdetector were due to login issues, according to user-submitted data. Server connection problems and problems with the Instagram app itself came next. Some users also had issues with Instagram's web access, with pages not loading correctly.
The extent of the outage was further confirmed by Downdetector's official X account, which stated that user reports showed Instagram issues beginning early in the morning.
According to Downdetector.com, thousands of reports were recorded on the real-time problem and outage tracking site, indicating that the outage was mostly affecting US users.
On the other hand, the websites for its Indian users were operating flawlessly. 49% of Instagram users reported problems with the app, 31% experienced server connection issues, and the remaining 20% had trouble signing in, per statistics from Downdetector.com.
Users react to Instagram’s outage
{{/usCountry}}On the other hand, the websites for its Indian users were operating flawlessly. 49% of Instagram users reported problems with the app, 31% experienced server connection issues, and the remaining 20% had trouble signing in, per statistics from Downdetector.com.
Users react to Instagram’s outage
{{/usCountry}}Many users voiced their concerns on X, formerly Twitter. “Me checking to see if everyone’s Instagram is down or if it’s just mine. #instagramdown,” one wrote on the platform. “Instagram is down,” another added. “Anyone else’s Instagram down? #instagramdown,” said another person.
Did Meta react to the development?
Although some users complained that Instagram was down, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has yet to make an official statement regarding the same. Additionally, no public status dashboards have been updated by the company to indicate the disruption.
Around three billion global users are currently active on Instagram. Over 470 million people use the platform in India. After India, 179.9 million people are currently on Instagram in the United States, per Statista.