The end of the world has come': Facebook and Instagram crash causes a global Twitter meltdown as users complain they now have to talk to their families in person

• The two Facebook-owned services have had issues since 4pm BST (11am ET)
• The outage has caused a hilarious social media meltdown
• Some users are shown a blank login screen, while others can't post anything
• It is unclear what is causing the problems and Facebook is yet to recognise them 
• The issue appears to be widespread, with reports of outage appearing in UK, US, Brazil, Japan, India and parts of Europe

Facebook and Instagram are down for thousands of users around the world causing a hilarious social media meltdown.

Some of those attempting to go onto the sites are being shown a blank page, with nothing loading - causing them to complain they now have to talk to their families.

Others have reported they can only load certain parts of the websites or apps of the two Facebook-owned services.

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And here we are. The end of the world has come... #facebookdownpic.twitter.com/VdyOFIXaCE

— Michi Hoffmann (@MichiTHoffmann) October 11, 2017

WHAT HAPPENED?

Facebook and Instagram are down for thousands of users around the world.

The problems on both services began at around 4pm BST (11am ET).

It remains unclear what is causing the issues for now, and Facebook is yet to confirm its technical difficulty on its official status page.

Those attempting to go onto the sites are being shown a blank page, with nothing loading.

Some have reported they can only load certain parts of the social media giants' websites or apps.

Other people report the sites work fine until they try to post something, at which point they shut down.

Some have reported the sites work fine until they try to post an update or image, at which point they shut down.

The issue appears to be widespread, with reports of outage popping up in Brazil, Japan, India and parts of Europe - though the outage has not affected everyone in these regions. 

It remains unclear what is causing the issues for now, and Facebook is yet to confirm its technical difficulty on its official status page.

Facebook is aware of the issue with its site and app, but hasn't provided any additional information.

'We're aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram,' a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable.

'We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.'