Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram Crash: What Happened During the Massive Outage?

Late Wednesday night, a massive worldwide outage disrupted Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, leaving millions of users unable to access these popular platforms. The outage, which began around 11 PM, was attributed to a "technical issue" by Meta, the parent company. As of now, Meta reports that 99% of the problem has been resolved, with engineers conducting final checks. However, the exact cause of the outage remains unclear, causing widespread inconvenience for users globally.

Impact of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram Outage

During the outage, Facebook and Instagram websites and apps were inaccessible for many users. WhatsApp, a crucial communication tool for millions, also faced disruptions, making it impossible to send messages. For some, Facebook displayed an error message on its login page, further frustrating users.

While this outage was significant, it wasn't the largest Meta has faced this year. A similar incident in March logged users out of Facebook and Instagram, incorrectly flagged passwords as invalid, and affected users worldwide

Adding to the disruption, OpenAI’s ChatGPT faced a global outage early Thursday morning. The issue prevented users from accessing the chatbot and impacted related services like OpenAI’s API and Sora video generator. OpenAI acknowledged the problem in a tweet at 5:45 AM IST, stating, “We’ve identified the issue and are working on a fix. Sorry, and we’ll keep you updated.”

Why Outages Happen in Large Systems

Outages on platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and ChatGPT are not unusual in the world of complex digital systems. With billions of users relying on these services, such disruptions are inevitable. However, the true measure of a company’s reliability lies in its ability to quickly identify and resolve the issue, ensuring minimal downtime and user inconvenience.

For now, Meta services are almost fully operational again, and OpenAI is actively addressing ChatGPT's issues, restoring normalcy for users worldwide.