Facebook, Instagram back online after widespread outages

The Facebook application is seen on an iPhone in this photo illustration on January 29, 2019. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A technical issue caused widespread login issues for a few hours across Meta's Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms Tuesday morning. 

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. 

Users of Meta's Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms experienced login issues in what appears to be a widespread outage.

DownDetector, which tracks tech outages, reported that issues began around 10 a.m. ET. 

Some users reported they were locked out of their Facebook accounts and were unable to get back in. Others said they were experiencing difficulty refreshing their Threads and Instagram feeds, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, did not appear to be experiencing problems early Tuesday.

In 2021, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for hours, an outage the company said was a result of faulty changes on routers that coordinate network traffic between its data centers. The next year, WhatsApp had another brief outage, the Associated Press reported. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.