Twitter down: Social media platform not working around the world

A single tweet from cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee can significantly affect cryptocurrency markets. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Twitter stopped working around the world, with users in Europe, Asia and the US reporting problems.

Users said they were unable to see new posts on the site, with the problem lasting for around 20 minutes.

Timelines were filled with old posts, suggesting feeds weren't updating properly

Problems started shortly before 7pm BST, according to the site Down Detector.

There were concentrations of users reporting problems in the UK, Japan and in the north-east and California coasts of the US.

The issue did not appear to be affecting Tweetdeck, Twitter's own specialist client for the site.

Twitter has more than 300 million active monthly users with the US, Japan and UK the site's biggest markets.