Facebook, Instagram outage today: Social media users report being randomly logged out of accounts

Did you get logged out of Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday morning? Apparently a lot of people have. Thousands of people reported being randomly logged out of Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms, according to DownDetector.com, a website where users can report outages and other issues.

Here is what we know:

A screenshot of Meta's "Status and outages of Meta business products" web page on March 5, 2024, showing issues impacting several products.

Is Facebook down? Is Instagram down?

Shortly after 10 a.m., thousands of people began reporting being logged out of their accounts and unable to log back in.

According to DownDetector.com, reports starting coming in minutes after 10 a.m. and then quickly escalated. As of 11 a.m., there have been more than a half-million reports – some 75% of them dealing with login issues, as well as issues with Facebook and Instagram apps and websites.

According to Meta's status website, several of its products experience "unknown" or "major disruptions," including Facebook Login, Messenger, WhatsApp Business, as well as Meta's business tools.

What caused Facebook and Instagram outage? ‘Technical issue’

Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that a "technical issue" caused thousands of people have issues connecting to its social media platforms.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services," he said. "We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience." 

In an possible swipe at Facebook, the official X account wrote on its platform: "we know why you're all here rn."