Facebook and Instagram are officially back and blaming server configuration change for outage

Facebook platform users hit Twitter with #facebookdown Wednesday, after losing access to Facebook, Instagram and Messenger across the world.

Internet companies experience occasional outages, but this one was remarkable for its global spread and duration, lasting nearly 24 hours.

In an unrelated development,Facebook announcedThursdaytwo key executives, including its chief product officer, were leaving the company.

These are just the latest executive departures as Facebook grapples with a string of troubles, includingWednesday's marathon outage.

Users reported service disruption around the globe, but the outage appeared to be most pronounced on the East Coast and in the U.K.,according toDownDetector, a service that monitors outages.

Frustrated users flocked to complain on Facebook rival Twitter, where one of the trending topics on Wednesday was#FacebookDown.

This is not the first time server configuration changes have wreaked havoc and, given the complexity of thesesystems, its unlikely to be the last.

It was not the only bad news Facebook received Wednesday.The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that a New York grand juryhas issued subpoenasas part of an investigation into Facebooks consumer data-sharing deals withother tech companies including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung.