FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – After being shutdown for over six hours, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are coming back online.

Error messages started showing up shortly before noon on Monday. Many users said that they were able to get back onto the sites, with most functions working properly, around 6 p.m.

“This outage isn’t entirely unprecedented. Facebook has had outages in the past. What’s unprecedented is the number of people it affects,” said Anthony Juliano, vice president and general manager at Asher Agency.

With just under three billion users, the shutdown had a big impact on many people around the globe. While the impact it has on individual users can be frustrating, the setbacks for businesses can have a profound affect.

Juliano recommends that businesses do not solely conduct all of their work and communication with customers on one social media platform.

“One of the things we encourage [businesses] to do is not be behold to any one app or any one platform. If you’re going to have Facebook, also have a website, also use other social media platforms. If one goes down, and you’re fully dependent on it for your business, you’re in trouble,” Juliano said.

As of Monday evening, the cause of the outage remains unknown.