Many people are experiencing problems with sending messages on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook says it is working to fix an issue on its network which has left some users unable to send messages on Instagram, Messenger and the Workplace Chat apps.

The social network has not confirmed the cause of the issue but said it hopes to resolve it quickly.

Some users of the social network and its wider family of apps reported problems sending messages on Thursday morning, with service monitoring website Down Detector seeing several thousand reports from consumers across Messenger, Instagram and Workplace Chat – Facebook’s platform for co-worker collaboration.

Facebook has more than 2.7 billion users globally, while Instagram has more than one billion active users.

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A Facebook spokesperson said of the incident: “We are aware that some people are having trouble sending messages on Messenger, Instagram and Workplace Chat.

“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.”

The incident comes at a difficult time for the social media giant, which has been hit by legal action in the United States which seek to break up the company from Instagram and another of its services, WhatsApp.

Regulators have accused Facebook of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors, claiming the company has engaged in a “systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.