Global users are experiencing outages on Facebook, including all company-owned social networks including Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. When browsing to these websites a server error will appear – Instagram displays a “5xx server error” indicating that this is a problem with Facebook’s servers. Users also cannot send messages or upload new content to the mobile apps for these platforms. Even Oculus, Facebook’s virtual reality platform, and Workplace, its corporate communication tool, are down.

It appears that the outage is caused by a DNS (domain name server) failure – this is the naming structure that forms the infrastructure of the web. So if you try to browse facebook.com right now, the internet won’t know where to find facebook.com.

The trillion-dollar company, which has 2.9 billion monthly active users, has been down for at least four hours – and it continues. At the same time, Facebook stock fell around 5.5%. This follows a recent downtrend in action as Facebook comes under scrutiny by the US Senate after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents to the Wall Street Journal.

This is a developing story.