Thousands of users reportedly had a problem with Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram for four hours. At Around 09:30 GMT, the Facebook-owned social media applications went down, according to a website that monitors online outages, Downdetector.

 Messenger faces the most significant issues

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Turkish Parliament Passes Law Regulating Social Media Content ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 29: In this photo illustration, social media apps are seen on a mobile phone on July 29, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey's parliament passed a new law Wednesday, to regulate social media content. The law will require foreign social media companies to have an appointed Turkish-based representative to deal with any concerns authorities have over content.

Messenger users were unable to send messages due to an error that said the app was 'waiting for a network.' more than 50% of reported issues with Messenger was about receiving and sending messages. In contrast, the main Facebook website said the case was a total blackout, with about 41% of problems.

According to Daily Mail, Facebook confirmed that the problem was resolved. However, it remains undetermined the cause of the issue and how long it will last. Also, not all the users were affected.

Messenger has thousands of users who suffered from the outage, while Instagram and Facebook experienced complaints in the hundreds, as per DownDetector.

A Facebook spokesperson told Daily Mail that some people had experienced trouble receiving or sending messages in Instagram, Messenger, or Workplace Chat.

"The issue has since been resolved and we apologize for any inconvenience," says the spokesperson.

Facebook's private messaging app, Messenger, has many reports coming from the United Kingdom and Europe.

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Is the outage related to Facebook's antitrust case?

After the tech giant was slapped with two massive lawsuits in the United States, the connectivity problems were experienced by the users. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulators filed lawsuits against Facebook and a coalition of 56 states, Guam, and Washington DC, leading to forced selling of Facebook and Instagram.

On Wednesday, the suit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. He accuses the tech giant of illegally acquiring its competitors to dominate the market and run an illegal monopoly.

Facebook has used its monopoly and dominance to crush smaller rivals for almost a decade, snuffing out the competition, all at the expense of everyday users, according to James. 

In a 2008 email by Zuckerberg, which stated that "it is better to buy than compete," was the FTC's basis that the tech giant is 'squelching' the threat from Instagram and WhatsApp. 

What's next for Facebook in the antitrust case

According to experts, it is unlikely to end in a settlement, so that the lawsuits might be a fight to the verdict. The two sides could spend several months arguing over the issues before the trial even starts, as per ABC News. 

George Hay, an antitrust expert and law professor at Cornell University, said, The one sure thing is that the demand for antitrust lawyers and economists will increase."

A separate antitrust case against Google is pursued by the Justice Department prosecutors, which seemed to be the same as Microsoft's case 20 years ago. Microsoft lost the battle, but it escaped a breakup when a court disagreed with the trial judge's order.

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