Meta hit by major global outage affecting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

Dubai: Meta was hit by a widespread global outage on Friday, June 12, 2026, with users reporting problems across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The disruption began at around 5:45pm UAE time, with outage-tracking sites recording a sharp rise in user reports within minutes. Facebook appeared to be the hardest hit: many users said they were abruptly logged out and were then unable to sign back in, even with the correct password. Attempts to log in returned an "unexpected error occurred" message, while the main Facebook website displayed a notice that "something went wrong" and that the company was working to fix it as soon as possible.

Instagram and WhatsApp also saw spikes in reports during the same period, with users describing login failures, error messages, slow loading and difficulty sending or receiving messages. The extent of the disruption was not equal across all services, and it was not immediately clear whether every Meta platform was affected in the same way.

Outage-monitoring websites recorded a surge in user reports as the disruption spread. Downdetector, one of the most widely used outage trackers, itself appeared to go offline at around the same time as the outage. It was not immediately clear whether the two were connected. Before it became unavailable, Downdetector had logged problems across Meta's products worldwide.