Meta's Facebook social media platform and Instagram are currently experiencing downtime.
Users were automatically logged out of Facebook and attempts to log back in failed.
Repeated attempts to regain control of accounts were met with warnings of breach of security.
"Warning! You are engaging in behaviour that may be considered annoying or abusive by other users," the warning read.
"Facebook's systems determined that you were going too fast when taking an action. You must significantly slow down," it added.
"Further misuse of site features may result in a temporary block or your account being permanently disabled."
Meta said on X via its Communications Director Andy Stone that it was working to resolve the hiccup.
"We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now," he said.
Meanwhile on Instagram, feeds could not refresh and the comment section on posts were inactive.
Attempts to post a comment were met with, "Comment will be added when you're reconnected."
All previous comments 'disappeared' and messages could not go through.
Users took to X to voice their frustrations following the surprise occurrence.
"I had panicked. I thought all my Facebook accounts were hacked even the ghost accounts that manages my big pages," one user said.
“This has been frustrating, I'm unable to get into my accounts,” another user added.
CNN journalist Larry Madowo had some piece of advice for users.
"Facebook and Instagram are down for many users. Go outside," he said.
Guinness World Records said the traffic of users who trooped to X during the downtime was so huge it was a probable new record.
"New record for most people on X at once soon to be looked at by our team," it said on X.
