Research in Motion acknowledged on Friday that it was having problems with its BBM instant messaging service, as many customers took to the Twittersphere to air their frustration.

RIM tweeted on Friday afternoon that "Some Canada and LatAm customers report BBM issues. Our support teams are investigating. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The company did not say what was behind the service disruption, or when full service would be restored.

Many affected customers aired their grievances with the service on social media sites, such as Twitter.

One customer, who goes by the username: marcelainezy, tweeted that BBM service "has been off since last night in some parts of Honduras."

NatCaine wrote "why has BBM been down for close to ten hours now?" and AaronadamsTO wrote, "BBM is down! Only one thing to do at a time like this: PANIC."

Some users were messaging that their BBM was working by Friday afternoon.

Shares of the consumer technology company fell nearly 20 per cent on Friday. The sharp decline eroded RIM's market value by just over $3 billion.

With files from The Canadian Press.