MENLO PARK, Calif. – Meta Platforms, the parent company of popular social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Threads, experienced a significant global outage on Wednesday, December 12, 2024.

The outage began around 10:00 AM Pacific Time, causing widespread disruption for millions of users worldwide. DownDetector, a real-time service that tracks website and app outages, reported a surge in outage reports for all of Meta's major platforms.

Meta acknowledged the issue in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, stating, "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 apologize for any inconvenience."

While the exact cause of the outage remains unknown, technical difficulties within Meta's infrastructure are suspected. The company has not yet provided a specific timeline for full service restoration.

As of 10:49 AM Pacific Time, WhatsApp reported that it was "starting to see a return to normal for most people." However, users of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads continued to experience intermittent service disruptions.

Meta's recent history has been marked by periodic outages, highlighting the vulnerability of its extensive network and the potential impact on global communication. The company is committed to investigating the root cause of this latest incident and implementing measures to prevent future occurrences.