Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services were suddenly offline .
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Users reported issues in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Bangladesh, and other parts of the world. There were also problems with the functionality for users in the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to the website DownDetector, which tracks internet outages and disconnections, the issue began at 6:40 p.m. EDT / 11:40 p.m. GMT.
More than 40 percent of reports on the DownDetector website indicated a total outage of the social media platform. On Twitter, users reported having difficulty loading their photos and posts.
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There doesn't seem to be a specific cause for the problem yet. Facebook hasn't made any official announcement regarding the issue.
Facebook's official status page also showed no sign of a problem, despite numerous reports from users. People in the know claimed that Facebook was working on restoring functionality.
The last time Facebook faced similar problems was in April of this year, as well as in March.
Facebook has been working lately to integrate its various services, such as the backend of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, in order to enable cross-platform messaging between its apps.
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However, critics have pointed out that increased membership means disruptions are more frequent and intense, while also making it harder for lawmakers to control the platform, something they have suggested in the past.
The outage also follows several major websites, including Reddit, Amazon, the UK government and many of the world's largest news organizations, that went offline due to a software bug from content distribution network company Fastly.
