Users of <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/10/30/meta-forecasts-revenue-above-estimates-while-cautioning-about-growing-reality-labs-losses/" target="_blank">Meta-operated social media</a> platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2024/07/03/threads-anniversary-meta-social-media/" target="_blank">Threads</a> were unable to post and send messages after issues were reported. Monitoring website <i>Downdetector </i>reported that the problems began at 1pm ET. “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience,” <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2023/10/24/meta-develops-mind-reading-ai-system-that-can-reconstruct-what-your-brain-sees/" target="_blank">Meta</a> said in a statement. WhatsApp's social media account on X, also briefly addressed the outage. "We’re actively working on a solution and starting to see a return to normal for most people," the Meta-owned platform posted. "We expect things to be back to normal shortly." According to NetBlocks, an organisation which describes itself as a global internet monitor “working at the intersection of digital rights, cybersecurity and internet governance”, the incident did not appear to be related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering. Social media users vented about having difficulty logging into <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2024/07/31/ai-chatbots-not-always-reliable-for-breaking-news-meta-warns-after-trump-content-issues/" target="_blank">Instagram and Facebook</a>. “Facebook's main page, messenger … all dead, all down, at least here in DC,” posted one user on X. “Looks like Facebook is down along with many other meta-services and more,” wrote another. While connection issues occur across various social media platforms, the scale of this particular problem, affecting at least four of some of the world's most used platforms, is uncommon. Services for some users appeared to be restored approximately one hour later, but the cause of the outage is not yet known. X, unaffected by the outage, seemed to revel in its rival Meta's technical woes. "This platform never lets you down," the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2024/05/27/elon-musk-xai/" target="_blank">Elon Musk-owned</a> social media company posted to its 68 million followers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Instagram, Facebook, and the hashtag 'InstagramDown' were among some of the top trending topics on X amid the outage.