Facebook, Instagram outages affect users worldwide, including Vietnam

Citing outage-tracking website Downdetector, Reuters reported that more than 17,000 Facebook users and over 5,000 Instagram users in the U.S. had reported problems by around 8:11 am on September 21, Vietnam time.

Facebook users mainly experienced difficulties accessing the website, which in some cases became stuck on the platform’s logo or displayed a blank screen.

Instagram was also affected, with Downdetector recording more than 5,600 reports by around 8:30 am. Nearly 60 percent involved the website, while some users also reported problems with the mobile app.

Facebook Messenger and Threads appeared to be affected as well, while WhatsApp remained operational.

Reports in the U.S. were concentrated in major areas including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, and Florida. Similar complaints were also recorded in Mexico, Europe, and Asia.

In Vietnam, some users said they were unable to access Facebook and Instagram or that the apps became stuck on their logo screens and failed to load content.

By around 9:00 am, however, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper found that Facebook, Instagram, and related services were accessible again and operating normally.

Meta has not disclosed the cause of the disruption.

The company has experienced several similar outages in recent years. In June, more than 62,000 Facebook outage reports and 8,000 Instagram reports were recorded at the peak of another disruption, according to Downdetector.

Meta’s most serious outage in recent years occurred in October 2021, when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went offline globally for about six hours.