Meta Platforms' services went dark on Friday in an apparently major outage affecting its huge user base.
Reports of the world's biggest social media network going down began shortly before 6pm UAE time, affecting Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, starting in Europe and the US.
Users in those regions reported widespread outages in browsers and on mobile applications.
On IsItDownRightNow.com, Facebook, Instagram and Threads were working, while WhatsApp was down.
In the UK, Downdetector showed that there have been more than 20,000 reports for Facebook outages and over 2,000 for Instagram.
In the UAE, however, the outage seemed more inconsistent, with some sites working normally.
Data from Downdetector.ae showed that in one hour, more than 400 reports of Facebook being down had been flagged in the Emirates. Instagram had nearly 300, and WhatsApp had more than 20. There were no reports for Threads.
The extent of the outage was unclear. Meta, based in California, has yet to issue a statement. The National has contacted its regional office for comment.
Meta's social media platforms remain the biggest in the world; they're the top three in terms of users, according to industry estimates.
Facebook has more than 3.1 billion users, while Instagram and WhatsApp have about three billion each. Threads has been ranked in the top 20 with a more modest 400 million.
These platforms have become critical for individuals and businesses as they are a key conduit for communication and transactions, spawning a social media society and economy. Any outages can potentially cause severe disruption to user activity.
Social media companies have also been stepping up efforts to integrate the latest artificial intelligence features on their platforms in an effort to attract more users and add more services.
