Update : Facebook and Instagram back online

Update : Social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are back up after a 13-hour outage that affected users throughout the world, the company confirmed.

“Earlier today, a server configuration caused intermittent problems across all apps globally creating a degraded experience for users. The issue has since been resolved, we are back to 100 percent for everyone and we’re sorry for any inconvenience,” a Facebook spokesperson told ABC News in an emailed statement.

The outage comes at a particularly sensitive time for the company. Many businesses use Facebook and Instagram to promote pivotal Black Friday sales, some of which have already started. The retail sector took a bleak turn in the stock market on Wednesday, which may make companies who partnered with Facebook particularly concerned about the outage.

In addition, Facebook is still on the defensive after a blockbuster report in The New York Times detailed how the company reacted to increased scrutiny and security breaches from Russian accounts ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The report revealed that the company had used a Republican-linked consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, to plant stories in the media attacking Facebook competitors and critics, including Apple, Google, Tim Cook and George Soros. Facebook fired the firm the day the story was published.

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Facebook and Instagram reported to be down

Popular social media platforms Facebook and Instagram have crashed as many users reported problems in accessing their accounts.

The crash comes after Facebook Messenger faced a similar outage yesterday (Nov 19)

Following the crash, users were able to see only a 'service unavailable' message while attempting to log in to their account while some were unable to view pictures.