Social media companies Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp have reportedly crashed with users reporting issues across the platforms.

According to Down Detector, reports of issues started at around 4pm on Thursday morning.

The reason for the issues surrounding the three companies owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg remains unknow.

What is a 5xx server error?

Instagram users have reported seeing a message displaying a 5xx server error message.

A 5xx code means the problem was cause by an issue with the server.

Typically the error occurs when the server is unable to fulfil the users request and will continue until server administration investigate the issue.

It is also important to consider that quite often, a chain of servers is handling an HTTP request, so that it may not be your server that is returning the error.

According to website DownDetector, over 600 reports have been detected in the 15 minutes to 4.45pm.

Is Whatsapp down?

Downdetector saw a rapid rise in reported issues from around 4pm on Monday afternoon.

43% of reports suggests problems with server connection while App (31%) and sending messages (26%) are other problem reported by users.

Is Instagram down?

Users began reporting issued with Instagram on Downdetector at around 4pm on Monday.

50% of issues reported were linked to the app while server connection (27%) and website (23%) were other issues reported.

Is Facebook down today?

Again, users started reporting problems at around 4pm on Monday afternoon with 78% of reports issued linked to the website.

12% of reports were linked to the app while 10% of reports were linked to server connection.