On Thursday, Instagram experienced a significant outage impacting numerous users worldwide, as reported by outage monitoring site Downdetector.com.
The peak disruption saw over 46,000 users in the United States experiencing difficulties accessing the popular photo-sharing service. Downdetector compiles information by gathering reports from various sources, including user-submitted issues on its platform.
The outage also affected around 2,000 users in the United Kingdom, with more than 1,000 reports each coming from India and Australia.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has yet to issue a statement regarding the outage following a request for comment from Reuters.
In another organizational update, last month, Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board indicated plans to enhance its review of content moderation cases and streamline decision-making processes. This initiative aims to broaden the scope of its operations.
Established in late 2020, the Oversight Board’s role is to evaluate the decisions made by Facebook and Instagram concerning the removal or retention of specific content, adjudicating on whether to uphold or reverse the social media platform’s actions. Since its inception, the board has released 35 rulings, according to information shared in a blog post.
The board, comprising 22 members, announced it will start issuing decisions on certain cases more rapidly. Rulings could be delivered as soon as 48 hours after the acceptance of a case, while others may take up to 30 days.
In-depth examinations of Meta’s content moderation actions typically require up to 90 days for standard decisions.
By increasing the volume of published decisions and their speed, the board aims to address more pressing challenges related to content moderation and respond swiftly to situations that may have urgent implications in the real world, as noted in their blog.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
