Facebook and Instagram have been hit by major outages, with users reporting that the sites’ home pages showed a only a “service unavailable” message. Hours beforehand, Facebook’s Messenger app crashed around the world.

Outages were reported on Tuesday afternoon in Britain and continental Europe, and on Tuesday morning in North America. On downdetector.com, a site where users can report website outages, reports flowed in from as far as away Ethiopia, Australia, and the Philippines.

Facebook looks to currently be experiencing an outage. The website is currently showing errors while users attempt to login, and view the site #Facebook@facebookpic.twitter.com/xegl8bpMav — Jonny McGuigan (@jonnymcguigan) November 20, 2018

Facebook Messenger Is Down With Global Outages Facebook Messenger is down, with 2,535 reports in the last ten minutes on Down Detector, and multiple reports from around the world on Twitter. @vitaxnewsroompic.twitter.com/Xnmqn8Z2RE — vitaxnewsroom (@vitaxnewsroom) November 20, 2018

Less than a day beforehand, Facebook’s Messenger app crashed for hundreds of thousands of people around the world late on Monday evening. The company has not yet explained the outage, which occurred just days after a connection problem brought down Instagram and WhatsApp, both owned by Facebook.

This is what I picture is happening at HQ when Facebook is down pic.twitter.com/lUponHsdTW — Briana Melissa Ford (@BrianaMFord) November 20, 2018

It seems that Facebook and Instagram are having major issues at the moment. My morning just got a lot easier. #FacebookDown#instagramdownpic.twitter.com/zWf9XB1IEk — Horror Decor (@horrordecor) November 20, 2018

Users looking for answers headed to Twitter, where the #facebookdown hashtag rapidly started trending.

People trying to find out what happened to Facebook. #FacebookDownpic.twitter.com/liOD7bN6CA — Cameron Grant (@coolghost101) November 20, 2018

The first thing I do when I notice a glitch in Facebook or Instagram is come on to Twitter and look for a trending topic.Ah, there's #FacebookDown. Right on time. pic.twitter.com/D5jk62Tsqo — James Michael Sama (@JamesMSama) November 20, 2018

Breaking out in a sweat. Is it wine o'clock yet? Has my cousin's mate been for a run? How many scan photos have I missed? Has my uncle been racist? Going to have to shout inspirational quotes out the window at strangers soon. What did aunty Carol have for lunch???#facebookdown — Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) November 20, 2018

Whatever the cause, Monday’s outage is the latest piece of bad news in a year that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely keen to forget. Privacy scandals rocked the company earlier in the year, and Zuckerberg was once again in the firing line last week after an explosive New York Times report revealed that Facebook hired a PR firm to smear and discredit its critics.

Facebook shares have plunged since July, falling from nearly $220 to $130 on Monday. With the company’s stock in freefall, a group of investors have made moves to oust Zuckerberg as company chairman, and called for Facebook to split the roles of CEO and chairman to loosen his grip on the beleaguered social media giant.

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