Facebook, Messenger, Instagram outage: Users complain as social networks are down

Users across Europe and around the world complained after Facebook, Messenger and Instagram went offline in a mysterious outage.

Social media users across Europe and around the world complained that Facebook, Messenger and Instagram went down on Thursday.

Online outage tracker Down Detector logged thousands of complaints on Thursday evening around 10pm AEDT.

Most of the issues seemed to relate to Facebook Messenger. However some users had not experienced a problem at all.

Facebook users reported seeing a message saying the “waiting for network”. Meanwhile those trying to send direct messages on Instagram were also hit with problems.

The two issues are likely linked, according to the Independent, as the platforms share messaging infrastructure.

A Facebook spokesperson said: “Earlier today, some people have experienced trouble sending or receiving messages on Messenger, Instagram or Workplace Chat. The issue has since been resolved and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

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Where the complaints are coming from, according to Down Detector.

Social media users took to Twitter to complain about the service, with Hasham Malik saying “Whats up with Facebook messenger, Is it just me or there is some outage ??”

Another user named Jess wrote “facebook needs to sort out their servers lmao they’re always having outages.”

Rok Hladnik said “wake me up when 2020 ends” while another user named lenz said “is messenger dying or am i alone in this struggle”?

Facebook suffered an outage across the world for some users on Thursday. Picture: Olivier DOULIERY / AFP

The outage comes a day after US antitrust enforcers filed a suit against the company claiming it abused its market dominance and called for acquisitions of messaging services Instagram and WhatsApp to be rolled back

Separate suits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state officials called for the divestment of Instagram and WhatsApp, services which are part of the Facebook “family” of applications.

“Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition,” said Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

“Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”

A separate legal action was filed by antitrust enforcers from 48 US states and territories.

But Jennifer Newstead, Facebook’s vice president and general counsel called the suits “revisionist history”.

“Billions of people use Facebook’s products every day. To earn their time and attention, we compete fiercely against many other services across the world,” she said in response.

“As the internet has grown over the last 25 years, the ways in which people share and communicate have exploded thanks to dynamic competition. The most successful platforms mature and adapt to people’s changing preferences.

“Our products became and remain popular for this very reason — we constantly evolve, innovate and invest in better experiences for people against world-class competitors like Apple, Google, Twitter, Snap, Amazon, TikTok and Microsoft. We innovate and improve constantly because we have to.”

– With AFP

Originally published as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram outage: Users complain as social networks are down