New Delhi, Mar 19: Millions of users worldwide, including in India, were left clueless on Friday night when Facebook and its family of apps including WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram entered a global outage.
People took to Twitter to share their experiences.
Independent tracking portal Downdetector showed a spike in the outage reported by users. There was no official word from the company on the reasons for the outage.
On Twitter, #whatsappdown was the top trending topic.
Users faced specific problems rather than the entire app not working.
On Facebook, users reported that specific posts or photos did not appear, but that the page was loading.
Millions of users had problems sending photos, videos and voice messages on WhatApp in India. Only the text messages were being shared on the mobile messaging service.
Services, however, were restored after a while.

Whatsapp guys turning off and on data...
— Tazzu Mewati (@Tajammuljahan) March 19, 2021
Restart phone....??#WhatsAppDown pic.twitter.com/9UFRQTHA9l
Whatsapp and instagram both down...
— BARORECEPTOR (@ammar2310) March 19, 2021
My life right now... #Instagram #WhatsAppDown #instadown #instagramdown pic.twitter.com/8hB43DMjy0
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Lucknow (PTI): The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered a probe by the special task force (STF) into alleged irregularities in the rejoining of a teacher at City Intermediate College in Barabanki, observing that the reinstatement appeared to be prima facie illegal.
The court also directed the recovery of the salary paid to the teacher during the disputed period.
A bench of Justice Rajeev Singh passed the order on a petition filed by the college management committee. The court expressed doubts over the roles of the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS), Barabanki, the college principal and the teacher concerned and hence, directed a detailed inquiry into the matter.
Taking note of alleged manipulation of records and misleading submissions, the court ordered the immediate transfer of the Barabanki DIOS to ensure a fair probe. It also directed the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the then joint director of education of the Ayodhya division.
In its order, the court found that the teacher, Abhay Kumar, was initially appointed as an assistant teacher in 2018 but joined an Eklavya Model Residential School in Chhattisgarh as a lecturer in June 2024 without obtaining permission from the management. His subsequent request to retain the lien was rejected.
Despite this, he was allowed to rejoin the Barabanki College in September 2025 on the directions of the joint director of education and the DIOS, and was even paid the salary for October 2025. The court termed the rejoining "wholly illegal" and lacking any legal basis.
The bench also expressed concern over lapses in communication within the education department and directed the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to ensure that official orders are communicated through email and WhatsApp as well, to prevent disputes.
The matter is next listed for hearing on May 28 when a compliance report is sought.
