FAcebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back up and running after the social media services went down on Monday.

At about 4:40pm, users began to report widespread problems with Facebook.

As of 5:15pm the website downdetector had 37,000 reports that Facebook's website was inaccessible.

Visitors to these pages simply saw an error message.

A Tweet from Facebook said: "We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

By Tuesday morning, all three services appeared to be working again.