LinkedIn Now Back Online After A Widespread Outage Users Described as “Suspicious”

By Moon Harper

Mar 07, 2024 12:21 AM EST

LinkedIn is now back online following reports of outages from tens of thousands of users on the professional networking site, as indicated by outage tracker Downdetector, which lasted approximately an hour, according to LinkedIn's status page.

LinkedIn's global outage comes after a day Meta experienced downtime, disrupting access to job listings, resumes, and influencer content, which DownDetector began receiving reports after 3:45 p.m. ET.

LinkedIn Global Outage

Individuals accessing LinkedIn from the United States encountered a graphic displaying, "An error has occurred," directing users to the "Help Center." However, clicking on the Help Center link does not lead to any useful destination, and even clicking on the "contact us" hyperlink redirects users to a LinkedIn domain that is currently unavailable.

Individuals in Europe, North America, and South America have reported downtime, indicating a potential global outage, as per Downdetector.com, which has experienced over 44,000 complaints around 4 p.m. ET.

However, the number of reports decreased to approximately 25,000 by 4:35 p.m. ET, and a representative from LinkedIn verified that the site had been restored.

Downdetector solely relies on self-reported outages, which may not comprehensively depict the full extent of the disruptions.

Series of Errors Accessing the Platform

The mobile apps and website experienced temporary outages, with LinkedIn's status page acknowledging the issues through a message posted at 4:04 p.m. ET: "Some members may be experiencing issues on LinkedIn. We are actively working on this and will provide updates as we have them. Thanks for your patience!" By 5:05 p.m. ET, the latest update indicated, "Sorry about the interruption. We're back up and running."

Uncertainty of LinkedIn and Meta's Outage Connection

LinkedIn experienced issues a day after Meta, another social media platform, faced widespread outages. On Tuesday, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads were inaccessible for thousands of users for two hours due to a "technical issue," as stated by the company. According to Downdetector, up to 500,000 Facebook users encountered difficulties logging in or accessing the site by mid-morning Eastern Time on Tuesday.

There is no indication that the issue with the Microsoft-owned social network was linked to Meta's technical problem on Tuesday or any other widespread issues, as no disruptions were reported with Azure's cloud or other services. NetBlocks, an internet connectivity tracking service, confirmed that the outage impacted multiple countries.

Outages' Theories Across Social Media

Various theories circulated on social media platforms regarding the possible reasons for LinkedIn's outage, including the typical conspiracy theories that emerge during such incidents. Some individuals asserted that the AT&T outage last month was suspicious, drawing comparisons between the outage and the events depicted in the Netflix movie "Leave the World Behind."

Even the official X account of Merriam-Webster's dictionary expressed concern about the unusual LinkedIn outage, describing the incident as an adjective "Suspect."

In response to an email inquiry, a spokesperson from LinkedIn directed Gizmodo to a tweet stating, "It's not you, it's us." and referred the users to check for updates via LinkedIn's status page.