Instagram users across the United States reported being unable to upload posts and stories on Tuesday, sparking speculation of a platform-wide outage.
DownDetector reports
According to DownDetector, reports began around 9:45 p.m. EDT, with most users experiencing issues uploading stories. Some even said they were unable to upload reels.
One user reported, "Problems over here in Minnesota, photo stuck on uploading on stories."
Another added, "Story uploading freezes at 86%."
A third person commented, "Can't post to my stories."
Social media reports
Many users also took to X (formerly Twitter) to report the issues they were encountering.
One user expressed, "Have been trying to upload an insta story for the past hour why does Instagram hate me."
Another reported, "I've been able to post a picture in story, but every videos I tried uploading say 'waiting for connection.'"
A third person reported, "Is Instagram reels down? Unable to post any video."
Meta Platforms has not yet responded to the reports.
Cloudflare outage
This reported outage comes just hours after platforms including Gemini, Uber, Canva, ChatGPT, and X experienced disruptions on Tuesday, following a major Cloudflare outage.
Cloudflare Chief Technology Officer Dane Knecht apologized for the incident in a post on X, acknowledging the significant impact.
"That issue, impact it caused and time to resolution is unacceptable,” he wrote. “Work is already underway to make sure it does not happen again, but I know it caused real pain today. The trust our customers place in us is what we value the most and we are going to do what it takes to earn that back.”
Cloudflare's software, used by hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide, acts as a protective buffer between websites and end users, helping to shield sites from attacks and traffic overloads.