Hundreds of people reported that they were unable to refresh their chats or feeds and were being met with an error message.
Facebook users were also reporting being unable to post anything, or like, comment or share other people’s posts.
People attempting to log into Facebook saw the message: “Facebook will be back soon.”
“Facebook is down for required maintenance right now, but you should be able to get back on within a few minutes.”
It added: “Thanks for your patience as we improve the site.”
Around 43 per cent of Facebook users who reported problems with the site said they were experiencing a total blackout, according to the independent outage monitor Down Detector.
The monitor, which tracks outages around the world, suggested the issues facing Instagram and Facebook were mainly affecting users in the US.
Facebook announced it was buying Instagram in 2012, paying $1bn (£629m) in cash and stocks for the takeover.
The original article was published in the Independent.
