Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp Down: Instagram Users Getting 5xx Server Error

UPDATE — March 19, 3:02 p.m. ET: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp all appear to be back up and working after nearly an hour of users complaining of issues. If you are still having issues, be sure to keep checking back and refreshing every few minutes. The services will most likely be fully up and running soon. The following is the article as originally published.

It looks as if Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all down, as users of the social media services are reporting this on other social media sites. According to Down Detector, issues with the app-based sites all began around 1:30 p.m. ET, with Instagram users getting a “5xx server error.” The outlet also noted that “user reports indicate Facebook Messenger is having problems,” as well.

Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has not released a comment on the outage. The Facebook Gaming Twitter account tweeted that “there are a number of issues currently affecting Facebook products, including gaming streams.” The account said multiple teams are working on the issue.

Twitter users have been commenting on the situation, with one joking, “The only time I open my Twitter is to check if Instagram is down.” Another user quipped, “Someone at Facebook unplugged the wrong cable, Instagram and WhatsApp are both down for me.” Journalist George Eaton added, “WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are all down – it’s almost as if monopolies are a bad idea.”

The sites affected are all under the Facebook company, and in 2019, it was announced that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg planned to integrate them. In a statement at the time — shared by the New York Times — Facebook stated that it wanted to “build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private.” It added: “We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.” No other social media sites, such as Twitter, have reported outages at this time.