Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram apps: Families and businesses affected by outage

Blaming a ‘faulty configuration change’, the global firm’s 3.5 billion users were unable to access services on the three apps.

The giant social media platforms went off line before 5pm yesterday in Northern Ireland and across the globe.

Many people who use social media to keep in touch with family and friends, particularly those in hospital or nursing homes, were badly affected.

Some felt completely cut off from family and friends at important times.

Also small businesses which have grown through the rise in these social media apps were also having problems.

Others felt almost six hours without social media was a ‘breath of fresh air’

Those attempting to access the site received a message stating: “Sorry, something went wrong. We are working on it and we’ll get it fixed as soon as we can.”