Outages hit Facebook, Instragram, WhatsApp users worldwide

July 3 (UPI) -- Social network Facebook and associated platforms Instagram and WhatsApp all suffered international outages Wednesday.

Failures were reported in many parts of the world, but were most concentrated in the eastern United States, Europe and South America.

"We're aware that some people are having trouble uploading or sending images, videos and other files on our apps," Facebook tweeted. "We're sorry for the trouble and are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible."

Users reported trouble posting on Facebook and Instagram and viewing content on all three.

Wednesday's problems followed prior Facebook outages during the spring -- one in March and another in April.

Also Wednesday, executive David Marcus defended the company's forthcoming cryptocurrency, the Libra, amid concerns it holds too much power.

"Facebook ... is just one of the initial 28 founding members that are coming together to form the Libra Association," he wrote in a blog post. "It's easy to assume from the headlines that Libra is only associated with Facebook, but that is not the case.

"You won't have to trust Facebook to get the benefit of Libra."

Facebook announced the Libra last month and said it will launch next year. A number of prominent businesses have already endorsed the new digital financial system, which will compete with other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.