Facebook Messenger went down on Tuesday December 5. Here’s all the latest news and updates, plus information on how to check if Facebook isn’t working.
News that Facebook Messenger – and possibly Facebook as a whole – was down took the internet world by storm today.
Predictably, some of the first reports began to surface on Twitter:
Facebook is DOWN, Messenger is DOWN #facebookdown #messengerdown Tell twitter because facebook won't work!
— Kuya Magik (@officialdjmagik) December 5, 2017
Subsequently, people began to look for reasons behind the apparent outage, with one school of thought holding that it could be due to an ongoing Messenger update.
They are updating Facebook Messenger ?
— Dominating Prince (@D0m1n4t1ng) December 5, 2017
Popular borkage monitoring tool Down Detector also appears to confirm that Facebook Messenger is experiencing problems – and that the issue is very much a global one.
Image Credit: OpenStreet Map (via Down Detector)
Investigating the matter, members of the Trusted Reviews team confirmed they were experiencing problems with Messenger – though some also appear to be unaffected. One possible explanation, therefore, is that a new Messenger build is being rolled out and causing issues for certain devices and platforms. Others, however, may be working just fine.
As of 1:30pm GMT, normal service appeared to have been largely resumed, with the number of problems reported to Down Detector plummeting, from the 1000+ complaints lodged this morning, to a more modest 30-odd.
If your Messenger still isn’t working, our best advice now is to be patient – it looks like the worst is over and you should be back online shortly.
Is your Facebook down? Or is Facebook Messenger not working for you? Tweet your experiences to us @Trusted Reviews. Alternatively, here’s all you need to know to check whether the social media site is experiencing problems, or whether the issue is on your end, in the future.
How to check if Facebook is down
If your Facebook isn’t working in the future, there are plenty of easy ways to check what’s going on.
Probably the most useful tool is Down Detector, a tool that tracks user reports about problems with other websites. You can see approximately when the issues started, how many reports have been filed, and even a heat map of where users are being affected around the world.
Of course, social networks are also a great way to check if other people are experiencing the same problem as you. The most fool-proof way is to head to a popular social network with lots of users. If Facebook is broken, you’ll generally find plenty of reports on Twitter. And if Twitter isn’t working, Facebook is probably your best bet.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
