Instagram and Facebook have crashed this afternoon, with reports of problems worldwide. According to Down Detector, the issues began at around 14:36 BST today, with more than 3,000 problems logged on the monitoring site. Of those who reported problems with Instagram, 68 per cent said they were struggling with the app, while 12 per cent could not log in. The remaining 10 per cent said the problem was with the server connection. The Daily Mail tried to access Instagram on an iPhone and found that the main feed would load, but that DMs would not send and Stories would not load. On desktop, an error message simply reads: 'Sorry, this page isn't available.'Hundreds of disgruntled users have flocked to X to discuss this afternoon's outage. 'Uhhhh is instagram down for anyone else or is my phone just bugging?' one user asked, while another questioned: 'Is Instagram down or something? I can't even log in.' Instagram and Facebook have crashed this afternoon, with reports of problems worldwide The Daily Mail tried to access Instagram on iPhone , and found that the main feed would load, but that DMs would not send, and Stories would not load. On desktop, an error message simply reads: 'Sorry, this page isn't available' Instagram users started experiencing issues shortly after 14:30 BST, with more than 3,000 problems logged on Down Detector With Instagram suddenly out of service, many concerned social media users have been left wondering if they have been the victims of a cyberattack.On X, one anxious commenter wrote: 'Has Instagram gone down? It won't let me into my account, I'm NERVOUS in case I've been hacked or something like that.'Is instagram down or have i been h*cked i can’t log in,' another worriedly asked.Meanwhile, some social media users seized the opportunity to mock Meta's tech issues.One commenter joked: 'The world's largest migration has begun. People are leaving Instagram and arriving on X just to ask one question: "Instagram down?"'.Several users have also reported problems with Facebook. On Down Detector, 21,860 reports of outages were submitted in just 30 minutes after users began experiencing issues.Over half of those affected by the disruption reported having issues with the Facebook app, while a third said they were having issues logging in. Social media users flocked to X, formerly Twitter, to check whether Facebook and Instagram were down for everyone else Users also reported issues with Facebook, with many reporting that they were unable to log in to their accounts One user tweeted: 'Anybody else just been logged out of Facebook Messenger and can't log back in? Unknown error.'Another wrote: 'Have I been hacked on Facebook or what? Is Facebook working for anyone?'And one joked: 'It's funny how the best way to see if Facebook is really down and not just a glitch on my end is to search "Facebook" on Twitter and look at the latest tweets. And yup! Everyone else is having the same issue. I guess people can tweet faster than Google can report it.'The issue even appears to extend to Facebook Messenger, with 8,694 reports of issues on Down Detector at 14:46 BST. Of those affected, 52 per cent said they were having issues logging in, 28 per cent had trouble with the app, and 20 per cent were unable to send or receive messages. It's unclear what the cause of the outage is; the Daily Mail has reached out to Meta for more information. Facebook and Instagram have yet to release any statement on their official X or Threads accounts to acknowledge the issue. This comes after Meta services experienced a major outage in March this year, reported by more than 10,000 people within an hour. Facebook received 21,860 reports of outages in just 30 minutes after users began having difficulty logging on The issue even appears to extend to Facebook Messenger, with 8,694 reports of issues on Down Detector at 14:46 BSTThere are many causes behind social media outages, but the problem is mostly because of technical errors relating to configuration. Often there is a 'single point of failure' – something relied upon by all of Meta's services, without which the services can't function. Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, told the Daily Mail: 'At this stage there’s no evidence to suggest cybercriminals are behind the disruption. 'It’s more likely due to issues with the DNS (Domain Name System), which is an outdated, legacy network that redirects the letters in a web address into computer-friendly numbers called IP addresses.'But when this system fails, it catastrophically collapses and causes outages. But the problem is that this system cannot be replaced easily, hence why we see so many problems.'This should ideally be a reminder to businesses that putting all customer engagement into Facebook, Instagram and Messenger services creates a single point of failure that can go wrong.'