Following an apparent global outage, Facebook Inc said it is attempting to restore access to its social media sites, including photo-sharing network Instagram and messaging tool WhatsApp.
According to the outage tracking website Downdetector.com, the platforms were offline for tens of thousands of users on Monday.
Outages were observed in densely populated regions such as Washington, DC, and Paris, with problems beginning around 15:45 GMT.
Facebook wrote on Twitter, “We’re aware that some individuals are having problems accessing our applications and products.” “We are attempting to restore normalcy as soon as possible, and we regret for any inconvenience.”
WhatsApp’s Twitter account also received a similar message confirming the outage.
“Sorry, something went wrong,” said the error message on Facebook.com. We’re working on it and will repair it as soon as possible.”
Al Jazeera was unable to confirm what was causing the platforms to malfunction.
Requests for comment on the outage from the Reuters and AFP news agencies were not immediately returned.
According to Reuters, the error notice on Facebook’s website suggested a DNS (Domain Name System) issue.
There were more than 50,000 incidences of individuals reporting troubles with Facebook and Instagram, according to Downdetector, which only tracks outages by combining status updates from a variety of sources, including user-submitted faults on its site.
However, it’s possible that the outage is affecting more people.
More than 22,000 people were unable to use WhatsApp, while over 3,000 people were unable to utilize Messenger.
