UPDATE, September 3, 2014, 5:20 p.m. E.T:
A Facebook spokesperson gave Mashable the following statement:
Earlier today we encountered an error while making an infrastructure configuration change that briefly made it difficult for people to access Facebook. We immediately discovered the issue and fixed it, and everyone should now be able to connect. We apologize for the inconvenience and will thoroughly investigate this issue so we can learn from it and ensure that Facebook is there when people need it.
---
Facebook's app and website are back online after an outage that reportedly affected users around the world.
The source of the outage, which began Wednesday afternoon, is not yet clear.
[seealso slug= "facebook-statuses-to-retire/"]
The outage began at 3:41 p.m. ET, according to downdetector.com, a website that monitors service disruptions. By 3:59 p.m. ET, Facebook appeared to be working again for most users.
As with many service outages, upset users took to Twitter to complain.
Facebook is down. Repeat. Facebook is down. EVERYONE. PANIC. #facebookdown— Red498 (@Red498CP) September 3, 2014
Facebook's not down, it's just busy taking the Ice Bucket Challenge.— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) September 3, 2014
This is your moment, Google+!— Connor Finnegan (@elconndorpasa) September 3, 2014
Welcome to Twitter Facebookers ;) #facebookisdown #facebookdown— Laura Marie (@lauramariescott) September 3, 2014
The verdict is that #Facebook is down- and not just in the UK either. Productivity & happiness... rising... :P— MCM Comic Con (@MCMExpo) September 3, 2014
This is Facebook's second outage in less than a month. The social network went down for many users for about 30 minutes earlier this summer.
Mashable reached out to Facebook for comment and we'll update when we hear back.