Facebook fixes global outage across social platforms

The outage affected Facebook, Ingstagram, WhatsApp and Messenger users globally

Facebook has fixed a day-long outage that affected Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger users globally.

On Wednesday, millions of users were unable to load images, videos and other forms of media and had problems sending messages across Facebook's various social platforms.

After becoming aware of the outage, the social media giant said it was 'working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible' and said the incident was caused by a 'routine maintenance operation'.

Website and app outage service DownDetector claims that the outage began at around 8 AM eastern time (13:00 GMT) and lasted for several hours.

Posting on Twitter, Facebook told users: "We're aware that some people are having trouble uploading or sending images and videos on Instagram. We're sorry for the trouble and are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible."

However, after a few hours, the issues were still apparent. While users could view some images and videos on their news feeds, others would be blank or buffer.

In another statement, a representative for Facebook said: "During one of our routine maintenance operations, we triggered an issue that is making it difficult for some people to upload or send photos and videos.

"We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience."

By Thursday, the outage had been resolved. Facebook released a statement on its official Twitter page saying: 'Earlier today, some people and businesses experienced trouble uploading or sending images, videos and other files on our apps.

'The issue has since been resolved and we should be back at 100% for everyone. We're sorry for any inconvenience.'

Instagram told users: 'We're back! The issue has been resolved and we should be back at 100% for everyone. We're sorry for any inconvenience.'

As of three hours ago, Facebook's status page has been updated to say that the platform is 'healthy' and that the outages have been resolved.