A Meta outage hit Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more—here's what we know so far

Core Insights - A significant outage affected Meta's major social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, impacting users globally [1][2][3] - The outage was first reported in the US on Wednesday, affecting services from the UK to Canada and beyond, with Meta indicating a resolution was 99% complete five hours later [3][4] Outage Scope - The outage impacted nearly all of Meta's products, including business services like Facebook Ads Manager and the Messenger API for Instagram, as well as the Login with Facebook service [2][5][6] - The widespread nature of the outage suggests a single point of failure in Meta's systems, indicating a critical component that all services rely on may have malfunctioned [7][10] Design for Reliability - Major internet platforms are typically designed for high reliability through replication across content delivery networks (CDNs), which help manage demand and ensure service continuity [8][9] - The outage's extensive impact raises concerns that it may have occurred in a part of Meta's infrastructure that lacked proper replication [10] Lessons Learned - The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of fault isolation in system design, where components are built to minimize the risk of a single point of failure affecting the entire system [11][13] - The need for critical systems to be engineered for maximum reliability is emphasized, particularly in light of previous outages caused by tightly integrated systems [12][13] Future Considerations - The exact cause of the outage remains undetermined, but it highlights the reliance of businesses and individuals on Meta's services for communication and commerce [14][15] - There is an expectation for Meta to provide clarity on the causes of the outage and the measures to prevent future occurrences [15]