Facebook: Outage Due To 'Server Configuration Change'

MENLO PARK (CBS SF) -- A massive outage that knocked out access for millions of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger users was caused by a "server configuration change" and not a cyber attack, the Bay Area social media giant announced Thursday.

The issued began around 9 a.m. PDT Wednesday and according to Downdetector.com was spread across the East and West Coast of the United States, parts of Europe and elsewhere.

"Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services," Facebook said in a post. "We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We're very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone's patience."

Instagram was back in action at 9:41 p.m. PDT on Wednesday with Facebook taking a few more hours to return to normal access.

Via its Twitter account, Facebook said on Wednesday that the outage was not due to a "distributed denial of service" or DDoS attack, a type of attack that hackers use to interrupt service to a site.

The outage was the longest in the company's history and many people vented about it Facebook's competitor Twitter.

It appears users all over the world reported problems. Users also reported problems with Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.