Instagram down in India, world; users express dismay

Many users across the globe are unable to access their accounts on Instagram.

New Delhi: Popular social media application Instagram is down for the past several hours due to probably a bug. Many users across the globe are unable to access their accounts, but Instagram has so far not yet given any indication as to when the issue will be resolved. 

According to DownDetector, over 800 reports have been submitted, while showing that the issue started at around 3 PM on Friday.

The complaints started rising at around 5 PM, and the complaints witnessed their peak at around 8 PM.

Recently, Google's products were also down on Monday. People across the globe were unable to use YouTube, Google, Gmail, Google Docs as well as other Google apps on their phones and computers.

Notably, the photo-sharing platform has announced the launch of two new features to help combat Covid-19 misinformation. Users in areas with surging cases will see a link to their local health authority at the top of their feed and anyone searching for vaccine information will also be directed to credible health sources.

According to The Verge, these measures will be taken in addition to the social network blocking hashtags that contain vaccine misinformation, which also got a mention in announcement tweets.

The following features have been rolled out after several companies took steps to keep coronavirus misinformation from spreading at a vital time for the US, as health institutions struggle with record hospitalisations and the first of the approved Covid-19 vaccines start to roll out.