On March 25, 2025, millions of users experienced a major disruption across Facebook and Instagram. Although the platforms’ basic content (feeds, profiles, stories) remained accessible for many, core interactive features—especially Instagram’s comment functionality and Facebook’s login process—suffered significant failures. Here’s a detailed timeline of the outage with precise timestamps:
Timeline of Events
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9:00 AM ET (13:00 UTC / 18:30 IST): Outage Begins
Users started reporting problems on Instagram. Early complaints indicated that although images and stories loaded, the comment sections were blank or displayed error messages. Facebook users also began noticing intermittent login failures, with some unable to re-enter their accounts after signing out. -
9:59 AM ET (13:59 UTC / 19:29 IST): Initial News Coverage
Major outlets such as The Sun published their first reports of the outage at 13:59 UTC. At this point, the disruption had already affected a significant number of users, prompting widespread media attention. -
Approximately 1:00 PM ET (17:00 UTC / 22:30 IST): Peak Complaint Surge
Downdetector and other outage tracking services recorded a sharp spike in user reports. Nearly 500 individual reports of issues with Instagram’s comment feature were logged, while Facebook experienced a notable increase in login error messages. Social media platforms such as Twitter were abuzz with frustrated users sharing screenshots and detailing their inability to interact with the apps. -
Ongoing Through the Afternoon:
Throughout the early and mid-afternoon, users continued to report problems. While the majority of the content still appeared to load, the inability to comment on Instagram posts or log back into Facebook was causing severe disruptions—particularly for businesses that rely on these interactive features for customer engagement. -
Meta’s Response:
Although Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has yet to issue a comprehensive public explanation or provide an estimated resolution time, brief acknowledgments were posted on X (formerly Twitter). The posts confirmed that teams were actively working on a fix, but as of now, full functionality has not yet been restored.
Impact and Reactions
The outage has had far-reaching consequences:
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User Frustration:
Social media was quickly inundated with user complaints. Hashtags and threads dedicated to the outage proliferated on Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms. -
Business Disruption:
Many businesses experienced a sudden halt in engagement. With interactive features offline, companies reported difficulties in managing customer queries and running live marketing campaigns. -
Recurring Concerns:
This event has renewed calls for Meta to invest in more robust contingency measures. Given that similar issues have disrupted services in the past, users are demanding greater transparency and improved reliability from the tech giant.
As the outage continues to impact millions of users worldwide, the detailed timeline underscores not only the rapidity with which the issues escalated but also the critical role that interactive features play in today’s digital communication landscape. With Meta’s engineering teams working diligently to resolve the glitch, both individual users and businesses remain hopeful for a swift restoration of full service.
Stay tuned for further updates as more precise details—and a formal statement from Meta—become available.
