Instagram, a platform owned by Meta Platforms, reported that service has been restored for the majority of users following a technical problem that affected many on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed to Reuters, “Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Instagram. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted.”
The number of users affected by the outage remains undisclosed by the company. However, outage tracking site Downdetector.com recorded over 100,000 incidents within the United States, 24,000 in Canada, and more than 56,000 in the United Kingdom.
At the peak of the disruption, over 180,000 users had reported issues with the app.
According to Downdetector.com, the disruption began around 5:45 p.m. EST (2145 GMT) on Sunday and subsided significantly, with just over 7,000 reports of outages noted by 8:30 p.m. EST.
Downdetector compiles outage reports from multiple sources, including user submissions.
In related news, Bloomberg reported that Instagram is preparing to launch a text-based application to rival Twitter, with a potential release as early as June. This information comes from sources familiar with the developments.
The parent company, Meta, is currently testing the new product among select influencers and creators.
Meta has also been in discussions with talent agencies and celebrities to explore their interest in an early version of the app, which is intended to be integrated with Instagram, as reported by Alex Heath in a newsletter.
Furthermore, it has been noted that this new application has been secretly available to a select group of creators for several months, designed to function separately from Instagram while also allowing users to link their accounts.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
