WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram restored after hours

Facebook-owned major social media platforms - WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram - have been restored after hours of outage worldwide. 

The messaging application - WhatsApp - announced the restoration of its service on the microblogging website, saying, "Apologies to everyone who hasn’t been able to use WhatsApp today. We’re starting to slowly and carefully get WhatsApp working again."

Downdetector showed that WhatsApp outage was reported at 8:23pm (Pakistan Standard Time) and it shot up to 17,659 complaints by 9:06pm.

The website mentioned that the Instagram outage was reported first at 7:59pm, while Facebook went down almost around the same time.

WhatsApp had last went down in March and was restored hours later, however, the reason for the outage was not officially announced by the company. Photo-sharing app Instagram had also gone down earlier this month and was stored after hours.

WhatsApp responds

Taking to Twitter following the outage, WhatsApp tweeted that it is working to resolve the issue and asked users to be patient.

"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!"

Facebook aplogises to users

After WhatsApp tweeted about its outage, Facebook followed suit and tweeted: "We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing the Facebook app. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

'Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time'

"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.

The outage comes a day after a whistleblower went on US television to reveal her identity after she leaked a trove of documents to authorities alleging the company knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health.

Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa, has worked for companies including Google and Pinterest — but said in an interview with CBS news show "60 Minutes" that Facebook was "substantially worse" than anything she had seen before.

The world's largest social media platform has been embroiled in a firestorm brought about by Haugen, with US lawmakers and The Wall Street Journal raising sharp criticism of the network.

— Additional input from AFP