Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp hit by outage

Major social media services including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were hit by a massive outage on Monday, tracking sites showed, impacting potentially tens of millions of users.

Outage tracker Downdetector was showing outages in heavily populated areas like Washington and Paris.

In Uganda, the applications were able to launch but unable to perform regular tasks like sending messages, downloading pictures or updating statuses. 

The outage that started at around 6:50pm was still on by press time. (7:30pm local time).

Facebook in particular read: ''Can't connect or menu isn't available at the moment.''

"We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products," Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said on Twitter.

The outage comes a day after a whistleblower went on US television to reveal her identity after she leaked a trove of documents to authorities alleging the social media giant knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health.

Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa, has worked for companies including Google and Pinterest -- but said in an interview with CBS news show "60 Minutes" that Facebook was "substantially worse" than anything she had seen before.

The world's largest social media platform has been embroiled in a firestorm brought about by Haugen, with US lawmakers and The Wall Street Journal detailing how Facebook knew its products, including Instagram, were harming young girls, especially around body image.

The tech giant had not spoken out on the outage at the time this report was filed. 

*Additional reporting by David Vosh Ajuna