shows the logo of the US social network Instagram on a tablet screen. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
It’s not just about you. Instagram is currently experiencing a major outage that is being reported around the world. And there’s no indication of when it might come back online.
Down Detector, which tracks website downtime, has received over 98,000 reports of Instagram down in the last 15 minutes. I’ve confirmed from my own Instagram accounts that the feed just won’t load.
The app says “Sorry, there was an error” or just “Sorry, the feed could not be updated” every time it tries to load a user’s home feed.
Similar to other social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, Instagram has become an important tool for individuals and businesses around the world. Just a few days ago, Instagram experienced another outage, which seemed to be much more local.
It’s actually quite funny how dependent we have become on social media tools like Instagram to see and share photos around the world. Today we take it for granted, but sending a photo across the globe used to be an incredibly difficult process. About 100 years ago, you needed a cable that spanned the entire Atlantic.
Gizmodo Australia was the first company to report this recent Instagram outage, while Down Detector had around 1,000 reports of an outage.
Meta, the company that owns Instagram alongside Facebook and WhatsApp, did not immediately respond to questions emailed Sunday evening (ET). I’ll update this article if I hear anything.
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I’m a technology reporter and the founder of Paleofuture.com, a website I started in 2007 that covers past visions of the future, from flying cars and jetpacks to utopias and dystopias. Paleofuture was formerly hosted at Smithsonian Magazine (2011-2013) and Gizmodo (2013-2020).
My work has been featured on BBC Future, Slate, The Verge, GOOD, Pacific Standard, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and Buzzfeed. Most recently, I was a senior writer at Gizmodo for ten years. I have also spoken at South by Southwest, dConstruct in Brighton, The Conference in Malmö, UCLA’s Digital Cash Conference in Los Angeles, and the University of Virginia’s edUi Conference. In 2012, I teamed up with the BBC to host an exhibition of retrofuturistic items from my personal collection in Hollywood, California.
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