By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Updated 11:56 AM EST, March 5, 2024

Users of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms are experiencing login issues in what appears to be a widespread outage.

London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks said on X that four Meta platforms -- Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads -- are “currently experiencing outages related to login sessions in multiple countries.” But the firm, which advocates for internet freedom, said there was no sign of “country-level internet disruptions or filtering,” which are typically imposed by governments.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, acknowledged the issues on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company is “working on this now.”

Some users reported they were locked out of their Facebook accounts and were unable to get back in. Others said they were experiencing difficultly refreshing their Threads and Instagram feeds. Meanwhile, WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, did not appear to be experiencing problems early Tuesday.

Cybersecurity expert Matthew Green said the outage appears to go beyond Meta.

“There are a number of services having trouble with at least parts of their systems, particularly the ability to log into websites,” said Green, an associate professor of computer science and member of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. “This may indicate a common cause, like a failure at a major cloud services provider. At the moment nobody knows exactly what’s happening.”