WhatsApp down: Messenger not working across the world on iPhone and Android

The popular messaging software WhatsApp has broken down, just a day after Facebook announced it would restrict some forwarding features to crack down on ‘fake news.’

Users around the world, on both iOS and Android, have been unable to log into the app at all on on Tuesday. Those fortunate enough to open the program could not send or receive messages. The cause of the outage is unknown.

On Monday, Facebook announced that it would be restricting the amount of messages users can forward, ostensibly to improve privacy and security.

"Starting today, all users on the latest versions of WhatsApp can now forward to only five chats at once, which will help keep WhatsApp focused on private messaging with close contacts,” the company said. “We'll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content.”

The ability to forward messages has been blamed for a lynching of some 20 people in India last July, as well as the election of President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. While admitting no wrongdoing, WhatsApp said it would take into account “user feedback” in adjusting features.

WhatsApp has been around for almost a decade, and was acquired by Facebook in 2014. As of early 2018, the company said it had over 1.5 billion users worldwide, exchanging 65 billion messages per day.

Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.