Meta services have experienced around 33 outages since the beginning of the year, including two of the largest service disruptions since 2022.

Technology experts have revealed that Meta may have built a system that has become overly complex, making it difficult to maintain without interruptions, especially as the company continues to reduce its workforce.

One expert warned that the problems are likely to worsen, describing the outages as "existential" for Meta. According to the Daily Mail Online, what is happening resembles what is known as "technical debt," where major technology companies like Meta have built highly complex parts of the internet on top of outdated systems that do not function properly.

Thousands of systems and different services interact with each other using what is called an API, or Application Programming Interface, allowing the complex system to work as a whole. However, if an error occurs in one of the APIs, the consequences can quickly spread to different services.

On March 5th and April 3rd of this year, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram services experienced disruptions for approximately two hours.

Immediately following the service outage on April 5th, the hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility for launching a cyberattack against the company.

Reports have revealed 33 instances of "performance degradation" between December 1st and April 5th, marking a 154% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. Due to the high cost of overall outages for the company, they are typically resolved quickly.

The consequences can be almost catastrophic, as seen in October 2021 when Meta services were down for 5 to 7 hours. The resulting loss in the company's advertising revenue was estimated at $100 million.