Facebook rules out DDoS cyber attack as widespread service outage continues; Instagram returns

Facebook says it’s working to restore access to its services following widespread reports of outages on Wednesday.

The social networking giant says it’s aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing its family of apps, which includes Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

In a message posted to its Twitter account just before 2 p.m. EDT, Facebook said its teams were working to restore access as soon as possible.

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Users reported receiving error messages when trying to access Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram, however, later tweeted that its service was back.

Both Facebook’s desktop site and app appeared to be affected. Some users saw a message that said Facebook was down for “required maintenance.”

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Facebook did not indicate how many accounts were affected or explain the cause of the disruption but said the outage was not due to a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack.

DDoS attacks aim to bring down a website or app by overwhelming its servers with traffic.

The website Downdetector.com, which tracks outages, said Facebook began to experience issues at around noon EDT.

— With a file from the Associated Press