Around six hours after Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram went down, service began to return, though coverage remained patchy.

According to public statements from the three Facebook services, outages occurred at midday Monday for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Facebook's own website would not load; Instagram and WhatsApp were accessible but could not load new content or send messages.

For many users, the fact that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all experienced significant issues for approximately six hours was a major event.

#FacebookDown started trending on Twitter, and users were reporting the issues they were facing.

Whoever made this, it is so witty! 😂 #InternetShutDown #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/kKbWjWjLEg

— Zikri Ibrahim (@ZikriIbrahim7) October 5, 2021

The outage Facebook is facing comes a day after a whistleblower went on CBS News' 60 Minutes to reveal her identity, after leaking internal documents to authorities stating the company knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health.

Facebook tweeted shortly after 6:30 p.m. ET that its apps and services were resuming operations.

"We've been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us," it said.

According to Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg lost $7 billion in just a few hours after outages.

Furthermore, the US Department of Defense rushed to announce that it is currently investigating the possibility of a security threat behind the outages facing major social media platforms and services.

Commenting on the issue, the Director of Al Mayadeen Online Bahia Halawi expressed that the statement of the US department is not surprising, adding it usually keeps the hypnosis of foreign sabotage before it hints at an internal defect.

هل من تصريحات خرجت عن #البيت_الأبيض بشأن أزمة منصّات مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي؟#فيسبوك #إنستغرام #واتساب #facebookdown #instagramdown #watsappdown @halawiBahia pic.twitter.com/ya4Z3wmaZU

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) October 4, 2021