Thousands of social media users reported being unable to access Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram amid a global outage on Monday.
The social media network, which is used by 1.9 billion people every day, went down at around 4:30pm on Monday.
The website Downdetector had received more than 50,000 reports of the outages in about an hour.
Facebook users were met with a message saying “this site can’t be reached” when trying to log on.
The issue also affected WhatsApp and Instagram, which is run by Facebook, along with its Messenger app.
The social media services began working again just before 11pm on Monday.
To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.
— Facebook (@Facebook) October 4, 2021
In a statement issued on Twitter, Facebook said: “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products.
“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
WhatsApp also issued a statement via Twitter, thanking users for their patience.
We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.
Thanks for your patience!
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) October 4, 2021
Social media users have taken to Twitter to report the outage and find out more.
One user said: “Apparently WhatsApp, Instagram & Facebook are down in the UK . Took me a few to realize it’s not my WiFi or 4G.”
Another wrote: “How long has Facebook been down in the UK? I just tried opening it at 17:00 and got nothing but an error page.”
Twitter poked fun at the outage with its own post, saying: “Hello literally everyone.”
hello literally everyone
— Twitter (@Twitter) October 4, 2021