Is Facebook Down Today? Millions Locked Out As Meta Outage Triggers 'Account Unavailable' Panic

Facebook users across the world were locked out of their accounts on Sunday morning, as the platform began showing a blunt 'temporarily unavailable' message to millions trying to log in via desktop and mobile. The Facebook outage, which also coincided with reports of problems on Instagram, first flared in the United States shortly after 3.25 a.m. ET, according to live tracking site Downdetector.

For context, Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, have a track record of occasional high-profile meltdowns that turn the internet slightly mad for a few hours. In October 2021, a major configuration failure at Meta knocked Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger offline for nearly six hours. On Sunday, users quickly began drawing comparisons, even though this latest disruption appeared more patchy and less prolonged in its early stages.

Facebook Outage Leaves Users Staring At 'Account Unavailable' Screens

The core complaint this time was simple. Instead of their usual feeds, many Facebook users were met with a stark system notice: 'Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.'

That is not the sort of message people tend to ignore. Screenshots of the warning bounced from X to Reddit to TikTok in minutes, as users tried to work out whether they had been hacked, banned or simply caught up in another Meta technical mess.

It can be recalled that the first signs of trouble appeared in the early hours of Sunday in the US, when Downdetector began filling with complaints. The service, which collates user reports of outages in real time, showed a sharp spike in Facebook problems from around 3.25 a.m. ET. Thousands of reports poured in, mainly from the United States, but with significant numbers also flagged in Canada, the United Kingdom and India.

Downdetector's breakdown suggested a distinctive pattern. Around 63 per cent of issues reported by Facebook users were linked to the website itself, while 20 per cent involved mobile devices and 10 per cent were related to the app. In practice, that meant some people could still open Facebook on their phones but not on desktop browsers, while others found the app behaving normally one minute, then coughing up error messages the next.

One Reddit user described an unnerving sequence. They said they first saw a warning stating, 'You've been temporarily banned', then were 'redirected to a generic error page'. For anyone who depends on Facebook for work contacts, small business pages or simply staying in touch with family, that kind of vague, automated threat is enough to raise blood pressure before breakfast.

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