Instagram, the popular photo- and video-sharing app owned by Meta, experienced a widespread outage on Sunday evening in the U.S., leaving thousands of users unable to access the platform. The outage lasted for several hours before service was restored.
According to reports, around 175,000 people were affected by the Instagram outage, with user reports spiking on Downdetector.com, a website that tracks app outages. The number of customers without service peaked at approximately 185,000 during the disruption.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, attributed the problem to a technical issue. In a tweet on Sunday, Instagram confirmed that the service had returned after the outage.
The outage caused inconvenience for Instagram users who rely on the platform for sharing photos and videos. However, service was gradually restored, and by 8 p.m. EDT, most users reported that they were able to access the app again.
After resolving the issue, Meta issued a statement apologizing for the disruption caused by the technical problem. The company stated that they had worked quickly to fix the issue for all impacted users.
Gizmodo Australia was among the first to report the outage when Down Detector received approximately 1,000 reports, indicating the early signs of the disruption.
Outages like these highlight the reliance of users on social media platforms for communication and content sharing, as well as the importance of prompt resolution to ensure uninterrupted access for millions of users worldwide.
