Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are down - CNET

Popular apps Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were down.

James Martin/CNET

Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger appear to be working again after widespread issues plagued the apps for roughly an hour on Friday. Issues started to pop up with the three Facebook-owned apps at around 10 a.m. PT, according to reports on DownDetector.

People, including us here at CNET, ran into errors when trying to send messages on WhatsApp and Messenger. The Instagram app wasn't showing new posts and instead said "Couldn't Refresh Feed," and some users reported seeing a "5xx Server Error" on the desktop version of the site.

Facebook said the issues have now been resolved, but the company didn't provide specifics on what caused the problems.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have trouble accessing some Facebook services," a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement. "We resolved this issue for everyone, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

In a tweet earlier Friday, the Facebook Gaming account said there were "a number of issues currently affecting Facebook products, including gaming streams."

There are a number of issues currently affecting Facebook products, including gaming streams. Multiple teams are working on it, and we'll update you when we can.
— Facebook Gaming (@FacebookGaming) March 19, 2021