Facebook and Instagram users in the UAE have been experiencing issues since Saturday morning. AP Photo
Facebook and Instagram users in the UAE have been experiencing issues since Saturday morning. AP Photo
Facebook and Instagram users in the UAE have been experiencing issues since Saturday morning. AP Photo
Facebook and Instagram users in the UAE have been experiencing issues since Saturday morning. AP Photo

Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp experiencing problems in UAE


Evelyn Lau
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  • Arabic

Social media users in the UAE and the region are sharing their frustration as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp suffer technical issues.

The website Downforeveryoneorjustme.com says all three services have been experiencing varying levels of outages since Friday.

The issues, which are still affecting users at 1pm on Saturday, arise when trying to log onto Instagram or Facebook via desktop. Users receive an error message saying the website cannot be loaded, while services on mobile apps are slower to load overall.

Instagram users on desktop are getting error messages. Evelyn Lau / The National
Instagram users on desktop are getting error messages. Evelyn Lau / The National

WhatsApp messages appear to have normalised, though there is some delay with sending and receiving. Messages are sent quicker on Wi-Fi but remain slow if sent using data.

On Saturday, the website Downdetector.com registered a spike in users reporting WhatsApp issues at 10.47am. The spike was also seen for Facebook from 11.11am, Instagram from 11.12am and Facebook Messenger from 11.14am.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is unaffected and people have taken to the platform to complain.

One user wrote at 11.25am: “Looks like WhatsApp is currently down in the UAE. Please let me know if it is working for someone,” and received various responses from around the region suggesting it was a wider problem.

Other users from Singapore, Indonesia and Bangladesh also claimed they were having issues as well.

Meanwhile, while Meta, the parent company of the three affected platforms, was slow to fix the issues, it allowed one user to joke that they would use it as an “opportunity to touch some grass”.

Meta has not yet issued any statement about the problems.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.

Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.

Torbal Rayeh Wa Jayeh
Starring: Ali El Ghoureir, Khalil El Roumeithy, Mostafa Abo Seria
Stars: 3

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

MATCH INFO

Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')

Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo 

 Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua

 Based: Dubai, UAE

 Number of employees: 28

 Sector: Financial services

 Investment: $9.5m

 Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. 

 
Soldier F

“I was in complete disgust at the fact that only one person was to be charged for Bloody Sunday.

“Somebody later said to me, 'you just watch - they'll drop the charge against him'. And sure enough, the charges against Soldier F would go on to be dropped.

“It's pretty hard to think that 50 years on, the State is still covering up for what happened on Bloody Sunday.”

Jimmy Duddy, nephew of John Johnson

The%20specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana

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ABU DHABI CARD

5pm: UAE Martyrs Cup (TB) Conditions; Dh90,000; 2,200m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap; Dh70,000; 1,400m​​​​​​​
6pm: UAE Matyrs Trophy (PA) Maiden; Dh80,000; 1,600m​​​​​​​
6.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Apprentice Championship (PA) Prestige; Dh100,000; 1,600m​​​​​​​
7pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Ladies World Championship (PA) Prestige; Dh125,000; 1,600m​​​​​​​
8pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown (PA) Group 1; Dh5,000,000; 1,600m

'Midnights'
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Updated: October 14, 2023, 10:11 AM