Facebook Restored After Two-Hour Global Disruption

Facebook’s desktop service returned to normal on Sunday (19 July) after experiencing a disruption that lasted for nearly two hours, restoring access for users who had been unable to log in through web browsers.

The outage began at around 1:30pm, when users in Bangladesh, along with many others in different parts of the world, started reporting difficulties accessing Facebook via its website. By approximately 3:30pm, the platform’s desktop version gradually became operational again, allowing users to sign in and resume normal activity.

During the disruption, many desktop users found themselves locked out of their accounts. Others reported that Facebook pages loaded unusually slowly, while news feeds failed to refresh or display newly published content. Although the mobile application continued to function for many users, some also experienced delays in loading content and synchronising updates.

According to outage monitoring platform Downdetector, reports of technical problems began rising sharply shortly after 1:30pm. Within minutes, complaints increased significantly, suggesting that the issue was affecting a large number of users simultaneously. The majority of reports centred on the web versions of Facebook and Messenger, where users encountered problems logging in, sending messages, viewing conversations and accessing their news feeds.

The disruption prompted many people to turn to other social media platforms to confirm whether the problem was widespread rather than being related to their own internet connections or devices. Such incidents are common during major online service interruptions, as users seek real-time information from alternative platforms.

Technology experts note that outages of this nature can stem from a range of causes, including server malfunctions, software deployment issues or temporary infrastructure failures. However, without an official technical explanation, the precise cause of Sunday’s disruption remains unclear.

By late afternoon, Facebook’s desktop services had largely returned to normal, bringing an end to the temporary interruption. Users were once again able to access their accounts, browse news feeds and use Messenger through web browsers without significant difficulty.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, had not issued an official statement regarding the outage or its underlying cause at the time this report was prepared. The company has also not disclosed how many users were affected by the temporary disruption.