Meta platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads experienced widespread outages on Super Tuesday.

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Reports are emerging of a significant outage affecting Meta’s top social apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Users attempting to access the platforms or websites are encountering an error message indicating that "something went wrong" and prompting them to try again later. In some cases, users are being taken to a logged-out landing page but are unable to sign in even when using their correct password.

Update: 12:11 p.m. ET – The apps appear to be working again. Meta said at 12:19 p.m. ET that the issue was "technical" in nature.

The outage seems to have started sometime after 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to reports on social media and user-submitted issue trackers like DownDetector. However, Meta’s own status page only shows results related to Meta’s business products, such as Ads Manager, not the platforms as a whole.

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The Trouble with Timing

The timing of this outage is particularly concerning, given that it coincides with Super Tuesday, when millions of people in the United States are heading to the polls to vote in primary elections. This event poses significant challenges for candidates and political organizations looking to do last-minute voter outreach efforts or reminding people to go vote.

Meta’s Role in Elections

Meta’s suite of apps has played a substantial role during the election cycle, with its family of apps reaching 3.98 million monthly active users as of the end of last year, according to company data. To mitigate the potential impact on elections’ outcomes, Meta has disabled political ads in the timeframe leading up to major voting events.

A Technical Issue or Something More?

The resolution of the issue occurred roughly a couple of hours after it began, with Stone saying, "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."

However, the timing had raised concerns among users, with some speculating that the outage might be related to hacking or other security issues.

Previous Incidents

There have been instances in the past where Meta’s forced logout of users has led to speculation about potential hacking attempts. In one instance, adversaries leveraged a bug with the View-As feature.

Conclusion

The widespread outage affecting Meta’s social apps on Super Tuesday highlights the complex challenges and concerns surrounding these platforms’ role in elections. While the issue was resolved relatively quickly, the timing raises questions about the technical robustness of these services and their potential vulnerabilities to hacking or other security threats.

About the Author

Sarah Perez is a Consumer News Editor at TechCrunch, covering topics related to social media, apps, and online services. She has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011 and has previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb.

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