Hundreds of thousands of users of Meta-owned social media sites reported platform outages on Tuesday amid an apparent global outage affecting popular sites like Facebook and Instagram.
Reports of outages across the sites appeared to dramatically rise around 10 a.m. ET. By 12:30 p.m., the outages, which were reported around the world, appeared largely resolved, according to tracking website Downdetector.com.
Meta’s head of communications, Andy Stone, blamed a “technical issue” for some users’ inability to access the company’s servers.
“We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” he said in a statement posted to X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
Facebook appeared to get hit the hardest of all Meta-owned sites, with nearly 500,000 users reporting outages just before 11 a.m. Messaging app WhatsApp, in comparison, only had a few hundred reported outages, according to Downdetector.com.
The outages became a trending topic on X, with Meta users turning to the rival social media platform to express grievances.
X owner Elon Musk, whose site has faced a slew of issues following his takeover of the company in 2022, joined the discussion by taking an apparent jab at Meta.
“If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working,” he posted on X.
Meta representatives did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.