Popular apps Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were down.
James Martin / CNET
Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger seem to be working again after widespread problems plagued apps for about an hour on Friday. Problems started to arise with the three Facebook-owned apps around 10 am PT, according to reports from DownDetector.
People, including us here at CNET, were mistaken when trying to send messages on WhatsApp and Messenger. The Instagram app was not showing any new posts and instead said “Couldn’t update feed”, and some users reported seeing a “Server error 5xx” on the desktop version of the site.
Facebook said the problems have already been resolved, but the company has not provided details about what caused them.
“Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have trouble accessing some Facebook services,” said a company spokesman in an email statement. “We have solved this problem for everyone and apologize for any inconvenience.”
In a tweet on Friday, the Facebook Gaming account said there are “a number of issues affecting Facebook products, including game streams”.
There are a number of issues affecting Facebook products, including game streams. Several teams are working on this and we will update it when possible.
– Games on Facebook (@FacebookGaming) March 19, 2021
Typically, many people have turned to other social media sites to regret, generating trending topics on Twitter.