Users of Meta-owned platforms including Facebook and Instagram are experiencing problems with logging on and loading content.

Some have expressed their gratitude as they realised X, formerly Twitter, isn’t Meta-owned, meaning they were able to ask other users if the platforms were down as some wondered if they’d been hacked.

The problems were reported on DownDetector from 3pm today (March 5).

Instagram users have also reported that the photo-sharing social media platform is also down with more than 9,000 outage reports.

Users of Instagram have reported problems with the app with more than 88% of users taking to DownDetector. 

Other Meta-owned platforms seem to be experiencing issues too, including Threads and WhatsApp, a new platform that operates with Instagram.

YouTube users may also be experiencing problems.

X users relieved to confirm their social media accounts haven’t been hacked

With a laughing and crying emoji, one user took to X to ask: “Is meta down or am I being hacked? my Instagram isn’t loading and my Facebook is also “session logged out”.

Another said: “Love that I can always count on Twitter to confirm that Meta is down and we’ve all been logged out of Facebook and Instagram isn’t working."

With a laughing and crying emoji, a third said: “The social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, are currently experiencing an outage. If you are having trouble logging in, there is no need to panic, you didn't get hacked (I panicked too). #instagramdown #meta #facebookdown”.

Another X user said: “POV: You’re on X to make sure your Facebook and Instagram wasn’t hacked”.

What is DownDector?

DownDector is an online website that allows users of popular services including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Virgin Media and more to report if they are having trouble with the services.

The site only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day.