When Will Facebook & Instagram Come Back? Inside the Meta Outage

Social media users found out how much they need Meta’s platforms. Find out when the popular apps Instagram and Facebook will come back.

Unless you’re one of the few who don’t have social media, you probably noticed that your Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram apps weren’t working on December 11. It turned out that Meta went through a widespread outage later that morning and afternoon. For hours, businesses, influencers and other users wondered when the apps would be back up.

Meta shared a statement via X that day, tweeting that the company was “aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps.” Meta added, “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and apologize for any inconvenience.”

Instagram also issued a statement via X acknowledging the issue.

Why Is Facebook Down?

In its official X statement, Meta noted that it was experiencing a “technical issue” that was “impacting some users’ ability to access our apps,” including Facebook. The company did not specify what the issue was.

Why Is Instagram Down?

In true Instagram fashion, the platform’s X account included the hashtag “instagramdown” in its acknowledgement of the problem. However, the “technical issue” that Instagram cited was not specified.

“Hi, we know there’s a technical issue impacting some people’s ability to access Instagram,” the account’s X account tweeted. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and are sorry for any inconvenience.”

According to DownDetector, more than 70,000 users complained of problems with Instagram after 11:00 a.m. ET on December 11.

What Other Meta Apps Are Down?

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were also experiencing problems for users. WhatsApp acknowledged the problem via X, writing, “We’re aware of some issues accessing WhatsApp. We’re actively working on a solution and starting to see a return to normal for most people. We expect things to be back to normal shortly.”

When Will Facebook & Instagram Come Back?

As of 4:00 p.m. ET, many users reported that their Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram apps were back up and running. Additionally, the reports on DownDetector decreased after 1:00 p.m.