Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have all crashed this afternoon leaving people around the globe with difficulty accessing the world’s largest social networks.

According to DownDetector the issues started at around 4:44pm on all four sites and are affecting users globally. 

DownDetector allows people to register when they have issues with various services.

Social media giant Facebook owns both Instagram and WhatsApp as well as Facebook Messenger.

The most common issues people have reported are network connections, loading the website and app and not receiving messages.

 

Andy Stone, a spokesperson for 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."

The official communications account for Instagram also commented on the outage on Twitter and wrote: "Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it! #instagramdown"

The official Twitter for WhatsApp tweeted: "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!"