Facebook has apologised as tens of thousands of people report problems accessing its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Those two services and Facebook itself have all reportedly crashed, with users reporting being unable to send or receive messages, and their feeds not refreshing.

Andy Stone, from Facebook’s communications department, tweeted: “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.”

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.

Downdetector, which collects status reports on the services, showed 73,804 problems with WhatsApp had been recorded in a spike at 4:53pm.

It showed 43% of the problems were associated with the app and 28% were related to sending messages.

WhatsApp thanked its users for their patience in a statement posted on its official Twitter account.

The tweet said: “We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment.

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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!

“We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.

“Thanks for your patience!”

The site suggested Facebook had received more than 58,219 reports, of which 71% were regarding its website and 17% were with the app.

Users reported being unable to access Facebook in California, New York and across Europe.

For Instagram, a total of 30,473 reports have been recorded, with more than 50% showing issues with the app.

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

It said on Twitter: “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!”.

A similar issue with the three apps was recorded in April 2019, when they crashed for around two hours before returning to being fully functional.

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