Meta-owned Instagram suffered a widespread service disruption on Wednesday evening, leaving thousands of users unable to access key features of the social media platform, including messaging, profile loading and content updates.
According to outage tracking platform Downdetector, reports of issues rose sharply during the evening.
Complaints increased to 1,993 at around 7:13 p.m., up from 436 reports recorded roughly an hour earlier.
By 7:44 p.m., the number of reported incidents had climbed to nearly 3,706, indicating that the disruption had become more widespread.
Most affected users reported problems with the Instagram mobile application, with about 61 per cent of complaints relating to app malfunctions.
Another 19 per cent reported server-related issues, while 11 per cent experienced problems accessing the website.
Users said they were unable to send or receive direct messages, while others reported blank screens, profiles loading incorrectly and messaging inboxes failing to refresh consistently.
Technology publication Android Authority reported that the outage appeared to be global in nature, with users across several cities in the United States, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Atlanta, reporting similar issues on the platform.
The disruption may also have affected other Meta services. According to monitoring platform StatusGator, some users experienced loading problems and error messages on Facebook during the same period.
Despite the growing number of user complaints, Meta had not officially acknowledged the outage.
Its business status dashboard continued to display "No known issues" across key platform metrics, and the company does not operate a public-facing consumer service status page.
Cybersecurity experts advised users not to repeatedly reset their passwords or click on account recovery links received through SMS or email until Meta restores normal server operations, warning that such disruptions are often exploited by cybercriminals through phishing attempts.
