INSTAGRAM was struck down by a server outage on March 19 leaving thousands of users unable to user the social media app.

Popular messaging app WhatsApp was also reported as being down as well.

How bad was the outage?

According to DownDetector, over 20,000 Instagram users and 9,000 WhatsApp users reported an outage.

The outage started just after 5.20pm.

We tested the app in the Sun offices, and found that we got an error message saying: "Couldn't refresh feed".

When opened on web browser it gave a "5xx error" screen.

For WhatsApp, the app opened but says "Connecting."

On Instagram, around 77 per cent of users reported not being able to access their newsfeed.

And on WhatsApp, 71 per cent of users struggled to get a connection while 26 per cent were unable to send or receive messages.

It was not immediately clear what caused the outage.

What is a 5xx error?

A 5xx error means any kind of server error where the server is aware it has a problem.

There are eleven types of error response codes beginning with 5.

They run from 500 (Internal Server Error) to 511 (Network Authentication Required), skipping out 509.

Only server administrators can fix them, so if your Instagram stops working then the best course of action is to wait.

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