Update: At around 7:55pm, Instagram appeared to be functioning normally again. The original report follows...
Instagram, the popular photo-sharing platform owned by Meta, has experienced a widespread service disruption affecting users across the country. The outage came to light late on Thursday, prompting frustrated users to turn to social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to express their grievances with a touch of humour through amusing memes. According to outage monitoring service Downdetector, the outage began in India around 7:03 pm local time.
Downdetector's map detailing Instagram's outage and reported issues (see screenshot below) illustrates that most of the problems have been concentrated in several major Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Users have been sharing their experiences on social media platforms, highlighting their inability to view photos and profile pictures within the Instagram app.
Furthermore, Downdetector's data indicates that this recent outage has not been limited to India alone, as Instagram users in various countries worldwide have also been affected. Among the countries experiencing disruptions are Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Expressing their frustration, disgruntled Instagram users have flocked to Twitter to voice their discontent regarding the platform's latest service interruption. Some of the reactions from users can be found below:
The last time Instagram went down was in July, notably before the launch of its microblogging app, Threads.