Facebook and Instagram users across the world experienced service disruptions on Friday, with thousands reporting difficulties accessing the Meta-owned platforms.

Users complained of login failures, loading problems and interruptions to core services in what appeared to be a widespread outage affecting multiple countries.

According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, reports of problems surged across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger as the disruption spread globally.

The platform displayed alerts indicating possible problems with both Facebook and Instagram following a sharp increase in user complaints.

As the outage unfolded, many users reported being unexpectedly logged out of their accounts, receiving error messages, and encountering difficulties refreshing feeds or accessing key features on the platforms.

The disruption also affected Facebook Messenger and some business tools operated by Meta.

According to Reuters, more than 62,000 complaints were recorded for Facebook and over 8,000 complaints for Instagram at the peak of the outage. The actual number of affected users may have been higher, as Downdetector relies on reports submitted by users.

Meta acknowledged the problem through its Communications Director, Andy Stone, who posted on X:

“We’re aware people are currently having trouble accessing our services. We’re working on it.”

The outage quickly triggered reactions on other social media platforms, where users shared screenshots of failed login attempts and sought confirmation that the issue was widespread.