Facebook, Instagram restored after it goes down for thousands globally on Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is noted for sharing photographs and exchanging warm greetings on social media.

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But this year's sharing got off to a rocky start Thursday, as Facebook and Instagram users reported issues posting on both platforms for a few hours.

Facebook told CNN that it fixed an issue just after 3 p.m. that had left many unable to use the popular site.

According to the website Downdetector, reports of Facebook being down spiked shortly after 9 a.m. EST.

According to Downdetector's outage map, most of the Facebook outages were in the Northeast between New York and Boston, with pockets in the Midwest including Chicago also affected. Major metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami also had reports of no service.

The heaviest Instagram outage reports came out of the Northeast United States, London and Brazil.

Some users attempting to log in to Facebook received an error message that reads: "Facebook is down for required maintenance right now, but you should be able to get back on within a few minutes."

Cox Media Group