Facebook and Instagram have been restored after users report widespread outages

Meta says its Facebook and Instagram services have been restored, after more than half a million users reported widespread issues earlier in the day, with many saying they were booted out of the social media platforms and unable to log back in. 

DownDetector, a site that monitors internet service outages, on Tuesday said it received more than 500,000 reports of problems by U.S. Facebook users and more than 70,000 reported problems with Instagram as of about 10:30 a.m. ET. The most frequently reported problems were with logging into the Facebook app and issues with the Instagram app, according to DownDetector.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services," a Meta Spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday. "We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience."