For many tech fans, a day without Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram would be unimaginable. 

But it seems their worst fears have come true, as the three platforms, all owned by Meta, have gone down today. 

The issues began shortly after 2pm Wednesday, according to Down Detector, with more than 2,000 reports from affected UK customers. 

According to DownDetector, users have been affected across the country, from London to Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Plymouth Cardiff, Glasgow and more. 

Many affected headed to X (Twitter) to share their experiences, with one asking: 'is anyone else's Instagram down rn.'

Another X user said: 'Using Twitter as it was intended - to check if Facebook and messenger are down.'

A third posted: 'facebook/meta is down so here we are', while a fourth simply said: 'Whatsapp down?' 

Mark Zuckerberg's firm is yet to officially comment on the outage, which follows a similar episode late last year. 

DownDetector gets network status updates from social media platforms, reports submitted to its website and other sources around the web. 

It 'only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day'. 

According to DownDetector, 66 per cent of Facebook users have reported problems with the server connection, 17 per cent with login and 17 per cent with the app. 

Meanwhile, 64 per cent of WhatsApp users reported problems with sending messages, 21 per cent with the website and 16 per cent with the app.

And on Instagram, 89 per cent have reported problems with the app, 9 per cent with the website and 1 per cent with the feed. 

The vast majority of reports of problems to DownDetector – more than 1,200 – have been relating to Facebook.

Another 330 reports have been to do with WhatsApp, while another 440 have been to do with Instagram. 

It's unclear what the cause of the outage is; the Daily Mail has reached out to Meta for more information. 

There are many causes behind social media outages, but the problem is mostly because of technical errors relating to configuration. 

Often there is a 'single point of failure' – something relied upon by all of Meta’s services, without which the services can’t function. 

'Major internet platforms are designed to be highly reliable,' said Toby Murray, associate professor of cybersecurity at the University of Melbourne, in a prior piece for The Conversation about the major Meta outage in December. 

'When you visit Instagram, for example, your computer connects to a server that sends back your Instagram feed. 

'In fact, Instagram content is not stored on just one computer but is replicated across a massive array of computers known as a content delivery network.

'Practically all major web platforms... use content delivery networks to increase the reliability and efficiency of their websites.

'The idea behind a content delivery network is that if one computer in the network has a problem, another can take over in its place. This is what makes the networks reliable.

'The widespread nature of Meta’s outage suggests it might have happened in a part of Meta’s systems that wasn’t replicated.'