Thousands of Facebook users across the UK, Europe and United States have been unable to use the social networking site, but there is something that can be done to force the page to load.

Problems affecting Facebook users on both mobile and desktop versions of the site have been reported, but the company has not yet acknowledged the problem.

Website monitors, DownDetector is reporting high levels of inactivity from Facebook and states that the main affected area is in the UK and across northern Europe.

However, The Mirror has found a workaround that can be used to fix Facebook if it will not load.

Performing a hard refresh of the page seems to restore the social network to working order.

The many many users are seeing when they are trying to log on to their Facebook account

A hard refresh clears the browser's cache for that specific page and is accomplished on a Mac by holding down shift as you refresh the page. For Windows users, holding down the Ctrl button will do the trick.

It's also been reported that opening Facebook in an incognito window on your browser will allow you to access the site.

Facebook currently has over 2 billion monthly active users around the world. It's the biggest social network on the planet and also owns the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp.