Claim: YouTube, X, and all other social media apps and accounts are inaccessible in Pakistan, while they are still accessible in other parts of the world, such as Europe and other Western countries.
Fact: Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads faced a worldwide outage, becoming inaccessible for tens of thousands of people across the globe.
On 5 March 2024, around 9pm, social media users noted being unable to access Meta platforms. Journalist Sabir Shakir posted on X that access to social media platforms has only been restricted in Pakistan. Shakir tweeted as follows:
یوٹیوب ٹویٹر X، سوشل ڈیجیٹل میڈیا کی ایپس تمام اکاؤنٹ صرف پاکستان کی حدود میں غائب یا بند کی گئی ہیں ، یورپ ، مغربی ممالک اور دنیا کے دیگر خطوں میں یہ اکاؤنٹس اوپن ہورہی ہیں اور دیکھی اور سنی جارہی ہیں۔ PTA کا موقف غلط بیانی پر مبنی ہے
[Translation: YouTube Twitter X, social digital media apps all accounts have disappeared or closed only within the boundaries of Pakistan, these accounts are opening and being seen and heard in Europe, Western countries and other regions of the world. PTA’s position is based on a misrepresentation of facts.
Fact or Fiction?
Platform X has been blocked in Pakistan for 16 days now, since 17 February 2024 to 5 March 2024. And YouTube was easily accessible throughout the duration of Meta platforms being blocked.
Several international news organisations reported the sudden disruption of services by Meta platforms. Reuters published an article only a few minutes before Shakir shared his claim on X with the headline “Meta’s Facebook, Instagram down for hundreds of thousands of users across globe”. The article highlights that the disruption started around 10:00 am Eastern Time, “with more than 300,000 reports of outages for Facebook and about 40,000 reports for Instagram, according to the tracking website Downdetector.com .”
CNBC also published an article around the same time, within the first hour of the outage, highlighting how Meta’s social media platforms Instagram, Facebook and Threads were reported inaccessible by users within the United States.
DownDetector.com is a platform that monitors social media outages in real-time. The platform highlighted that in the last 24 hours, there have been as many as 527,365 reports of outages for Facebook,. It noted receiving 81,858 reports for Instagram, and for Threads they charted 949 reports here.
Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Ston also acknowledged the outage (archive) on X saying, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now”. Metastatus.com, a website which allows users to see the status and check for outages for Meta business products, also noted major disruptions in Facebook and Instagram. .
The Guardian, The Verge, Euronews.com, Washington Post, BBC were amongst the major international news platforms that also reported the global outage. None of their reports corroborated the claim that the outage is only limited to Pakistan.
Facebook and Instagram seem to be back online now, after around two hours of disruption.
Virality
Sabir Shakir’s post on X received 87,500 views and more than 10,000 interactions within an hour of being posted.
Conclusion: Meta platforms faced an outage across the globe, and it was not limited to Pakistan.
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Background image in cover photo: Investopedia
Correction: A correction was later added on the same day of publishing to emphasize that YouTube continued without disruption and that platform X has been banned for 16 days now.
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