Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp go down

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down Monday due to an apparent major outage of the infrastructure that power the three giant social media platforms, which are all owned by Facebook.

Those attempting to access Facebook Monday saw an error message displayed, while Instagram and WhatsApp continued to function but would not load new content. 

"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," wrote Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone via Twitter.

Instagram and WhatsApp posted similar messages shortly after. 

The timing of the major outage, a relatively rare occurrence for the Big Tech company, coincides with a new whistleblower report from The Wall Street Journal. Just hours before the outage, the WSJ continued its expose series "The Facebook Files" which has gradually been exposing a trove of internal Facebook documents. Revelations from the project have included the company's practice of "whitelisting" certain VIP accounts, in addition to issues with Instagram and research that suggests it harms the mental health of teenage girls, among other problems.