Instagram testing feature to notify users of outage or issue inside app

Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Facebook Inc’s Instagram said on Monday it is testing a feature to notify users of outages or technical issues directly on the photo-sharing app, days after two outages disrupted the social media giant’s services.

The test will run in the United States and will go on for a few months, Instagram said in a blog post.

On Oct.4, a six-hour long outage prevented the company’s 3.5 billion users from accessing its social media and messaging services, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

Earlier on Monday, many users faced problems with Instagram, according to user reports on web monitoring group Downdetector.

The company is also planning to roll out a feature that will help making it easier for people to know whether their account is at risk of being disabled.

The social media giant, which has been the center of memes and jokes on Twitter following the outages, is also grappling with former employee turned whistleblower Frances Haugen’s accusation that the company repeatedly prioritized profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation.

Haugen, who provided the documents that underpinned a Wall Street Journal investigation and a Senate hearing on Instagram’s harm to teen girls, has agreed to meet with Facebook’s oversight board in the coming weeks to brief them about what she learned while working at the company.