Global outage hits Facebook and Instagram, millions affected

Millions of users worldwide were unable to access Facebook and Instagram on Sunday, July 19, 2026, following a significant outage that lasted several hours. The disruption appears to be global, with major impacts in the United States, Spain, and Singapore Source: ABC, CNN.

What happened

Users attempting to log in encountered error messages such as "This account is temporarily unavailable" or "Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue" Source: ABC, CNN. Downdetector recorded a surge in reports: in the US, over 23,000 users reported issues with Facebook and at least 18,000 with Instagram during the peak Source: CNN. Spain saw a 45% increase in failed access attempts for Facebook Source: ABC. Instagram's servers were reportedly receiving 2.45 million login attempts per minute, four times the allowed limit of 600,000 Source: ABC. NetBlocks confirmed the outages were international and not due to national internet disruptions Source: CNN.

Discrepancies and response

While ABC reports 63% of US users had problems accessing Facebook's website, CNN cites more specific figures from Downdetector without a percentage. Both agree the outage was widespread. Meta, the parent company, had not commented at the time of reporting; CNN noted that WhatsApp appeared unaffected Source: CNN, ABC.