Social media platforms – Instagram and Facebook – faced major outage on March 5 with millions of users reporting “forced logged out”.
Netizens took to Twitter (also called X) to report that they were logged out of the Meta network and were unable to login.
Facebook users said that they were logged out and were shown a white screen when they tried to login again.
Several Instagram users said that they could not refresh their feed while they were still logged in in the app.
There was no immediate comment from Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.
As the outage persisted, speculations and conspiracy theories began to circulate on various online forums. Some users joked that the algorithms had decided to go on a coffee break, while others speculated about potential cyberattacks or system glitches.
Within minutes, the hashtags #InstagramDown and #FacebookDown started trending worldwide on Twitter, as users shared their frustrations, memes, and theories about the sudden disruption.
Several users first thought that their accounts may have been hacked, only to realise later that the overall social networks went down.
Problems with ‘Sign in with Google’
The popular ‘Sign in with Google’ service, which gives password-less login access to several websites, was also not working on March 5. The service interface was to be upgraded soon and it seems the internet bug caught the service as well. Users said that they were unable to login to several websites by using the ‘Sign in with Google’ service.
Here’s what you can do
As both Instagram and Facebook experience widespread disruptions, users in affected regions can consider the following steps:
Check official status updates
Visit the official social media platform status pages or support accounts for real-time updates on the ongoing outage. This will provide you with information on when the services are expected to be restored.
Patience is key
Outages are typically temporary, and service providers are actively working to resolve issues. Exercise patience and wait for official announcements regarding the restoration of services.
Keep your information safe
While trying to login again, do not give you user ID and password to unauthorized website. Also remember that there could be phishing attacks trying to get such information from you as you try to repeatedly login.
