The ubiquitous social media site Facebook crashed Tuesday morning, just after 8:00 am IST.
Attempts to access the site result in a "page not found" or loading loop, or alternatively end with an error message stating, "we are working on it and will fix the problem as soon as possible."
The site was down in the US, Australia, and parts of Asia (including Israel), according to the Associated Press. It returned live at about 9:15 am IST.
While this is not the first time a major website has crashed this year - similar crashes were reported in June and September - the crash follows a string of cyberattacks from jihadist hackers throughout the world, including an attack on North Korea's website and on Malaysia Airlines.
Facebook is the largest social network in the world. The site is available in over 70 languages (and some fun dialects, including Pirate) and has 1.3 billion active user pages - some 1/7 of the world's population.
80% of the site's users are outside the United States and Canada.
According to Alexa rating company for internet usage, Facebook is the second most-accesses site on the world wide web and the third most popular in Israel.
The site was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Andrew Malcom when they were students at Harvard University on February 4, 2004.
Social photo-sharing site Instagram has also been down since as far back as 1:00 am IST, according to some reports.
Ironically, Facebook users took to Twitter to comment on the mishap, employing a wry sense of humor about the situation.