After experiencing widespread outages, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are back up and running for most users in the UAE. The disruption lasted for about two hours, causing inconvenience to users who rely heavily on these platforms for social interaction and work-related activities.
Andy Stone, Communications head at Meta, confirmed that the apps were restored to normal functionality after the malfunction, which affected users globally.
During the outage, users across the UAE encountered difficulties accessing Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Discord. Down detector recorded a significant increase in the number of users reporting issues with Facebook and Instagram around 7 pm UAE time. Instagram users experienced similar issues, particularly with loading content and posting updates.
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Many users turned to alternative communication platforms like X and WhatsApp groups to express their frustration and report the outages. Some individuals, like Dubai resident Meher D., initially thought the issue was with their WiFi until realizing that Instagram was down. Others, like Zuhara Safa, faced challenges posting content on Instagram, disrupting their plans to share photos with friends.
The outage also impacted individuals professionally, as highlighted by James J., who relies heavily on social media for work-related purposes. He reported being suddenly logged out of his account and encountering issues with security code verification.
Furthermore, some users experienced unusual glitches, such as blank screens in the ‘threads’ section of their apps.
According to reports from Reuters, over 300,000 Facebook outages and over 47,000 Instagram outages were reported globally during the disruption.
Meta’s Andy Stone assured users on X that the company was actively working to resolve the outages.
Despite the widespread disruptions across Meta-owned platforms, WhatsApp remained unaffected during this incident. Unlike the major outage in 2020, which took down all three apps for several hours, WhatsApp continued to function normally. However, users remained vigilant as the situation unfolded, hoping to avoid further disruptions to their communication channels.
