Meta AI outages and service interruptions: latest reports and impact in 2025
- Graziano Stefanelli
- Sep 6
- 3 min read
In 2025, Meta AI accelerated its global expansion across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, integrating Llama-powered models and new assistant features into billions of daily interactions. However, the rollout was accompanied by a series of service interruptions, interface glitches, and security incidents. From platform-wide outages to privacy-related bugs, Meta has faced growing challenges in maintaining availability and transparency for users adopting its AI-driven tools. This September 2025 update reviews the key disruptions reported so far, their causes, and Meta’s response strategies.
A major platform outage disrupted Facebook and Instagram in March.
On 25 March 2025, a widespread Facebook and Instagram outage impacted hundreds of thousands of users globally. According to Downdetector, more than 550,000 reports were filed during the peak of the incident.
Impact and timeline:
Users experienced login failures, blank feeds, and intermittent profile-loading errors.
The disruption lasted for approximately two hours before Meta restored 99% service availability.
Meta activated its internal SEV-2 emergency protocol to handle escalations and coordinated recovery.
This event marked the year’s largest infrastructure disruption across Meta’s ecosystem, highlighting the scaling pressures created by the rapid rollout of AI-driven features within existing social platforms.
WhatsApp integration bug caused temporary Meta AI downtime.
On 10 April 2025, Meta introduced a regional update for Meta AI on WhatsApp in several European countries. Within hours, users reported that the AI assistant icon disappeared from chats and could not be invoked for any requests.
What happened:
The integration bug affected early-access WhatsApp AI features, particularly in the EU.
Regular messaging remained functional, but AI-powered query handling was unavailable for several hours.
WhatsApp acknowledged the issue and stated: “This was a technical error we’re working to resolve”.
The disruption showcased the sensitivity of rolling out AI-driven assistants within messaging platforms where UI stability is critical for adoption.
A second Facebook outage in April highlighted infrastructure fragility.
Just two weeks later, on 25 April 2025, another outage affected Facebook users across the Americas and Europe.
Key details:
Duration: Approximately 90 minutes.
Symptoms included partial news feed failures, missing notifications, and inability to load Marketplace.
Meta attributed the incident to a network configuration change during backend maintenance.
Unlike the March disruption, this incident did not cascade across Instagram or Messenger, suggesting better isolation between services, though it renewed concerns about Meta’s infrastructure readiness as it deploys AI models at scale.
Privacy glitch exposed Meta AI chats in the Discover feed.
One of the most controversial incidents occurred on 13 June 2025, when users reported that private Meta AI conversations appeared publicly in the app’s Discover section. Although Meta initially stated that this visibility was “by design”—intended to showcase trending assistant queries—the backlash prompted a UI change.
Meta’s response:
A toggle was introduced to allow users to opt out of displaying their AI chat queries.
A transparency banner was added within the Discover tab, clarifying visibility settings.
Meta reinforced that no private user identifiers were leaked during the event.
This incident triggered discussions around privacy defaults and informed consent for AI-integrated assistants, especially in jurisdictions preparing to enforce stricter AI Act regulations.
Security vulnerability revealed prompt-leak risks in July.
On 15 July 2025, researchers discovered a prompt-leak vulnerability in Meta AI that allowed unauthorized access to other users’ interactions by manipulating predictable API request IDs.
Key facts:
Meta patched the vulnerability within hours of receiving the report.
A $10,000 bug bounty was awarded to the researchers.
No large-scale exploitation was detected before the fix.
The incident reinforced Meta’s ongoing security challenges as its AI assistants integrate deeply into Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook’s existing infrastructure.
Overview of Meta AI service interruptions in 2025.
Meta’s response strategy and September 2025 status.
By September 2025, Meta AI remains fully operational across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, with no additional outages reported since July. However, the sequence of infrastructure failures, UI bugs, and privacy-related incidents earlier in the year has reshaped Meta’s internal processes.
Ongoing measures include:
Enhanced incident response protocols for AI-integrated environments.
Expansion of real-time monitoring for API stability and cross-service dependencies.
Dedicated privacy UX adjustments, ensuring AI-driven features have clearer consent flows.
As Meta scales Llama-powered assistants globally, maintaining both availability and user trust will remain central to its competitive positioning in the AI ecosystem.
____________
FOLLOW US FOR MORE.
DATA STUDIOS