tl;dr
A catastrophic AWS outage disrupted global platforms like Amazon, Snapchat, and financial apps, exposing vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure and leaving millions in chaos.
**Massive AWS Outage Disrupts Global Internet, Taking Down Major Platforms**
A catastrophic internet failure has sent shockwaves across the digital world, as a severe outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) crippled major platforms including Amazon, Snapchat, Fortnite, and Canva. The disruption, which began in the early hours of today, has left millions unable to access critical services, stream content, or even operate smart devices, highlighting the profound reliance on cloud infrastructure.
The crisis originated in AWS’s US-EAST-1 region around 3:11 AM ET, according to the company’s status page, which reported “increased error rates and latencies” across multiple services. Though initially centered in the U.S., the impact has rippled globally, with users worldwide reporting widespread malfunctions. From frozen screens to non-responsive smart home devices, the outage has disrupted daily routines and business operations. Alexa devices failed to answer commands, alarms stopped working, and apps like McDonald’s and Airtable struggled to connect.
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, confirmed the outage’s scope, stating, “Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.” Amazon later acknowledged the incident, releasing a statement at 3:51 AM ET that teams were “actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand the root cause,” with a follow-up update promised in 45 minutes. However, no timeline for full recovery has been provided.
As the world’s largest cloud platform, AWS underpins critical services for businesses, consumers, and governments. Its failure has exposed vulnerabilities in the internet’s infrastructure, with nearly every major web platform turning red on Down Detector by dawn. The list of affected services is staggering: Snapchat, Ring, Roblox, Clash Royale, Life360, MyFitnessPal, Xero, Robinhood, Fidelity, JPMorgan, PayPal, Venmo, Amazon Music, Prime Video, Clash of Clans, Fortnite, Wordle, Duolingo, Coinbase, HMRC, Vodafone, PlayStation, and Pokémon Go—all reported severe issues.
The fallout extends beyond entertainment. Payment platforms like Coinbase are experiencing downtime, disrupting cryptocurrency transactions and causing frustration among traders. “Failed transactions and price updates not refreshing on time is a nightmare when markets move fast,” one user tweeted. Financial apps and fintech services, which rely heavily on AWS, faced login failures, stalled transactions, and content loading issues.
While AWS has not yet identified the root cause, engineers on online forums speculate about potential triggers. Some point to internal service synchronization errors that may have cascaded across regions, while others suggest a routing misconfiguration in Amazon’s data backbone. However, no official explanation has been released, leaving users and businesses in limbo.
As the internet remains “shaky,” the outage underscores the fragility of the digital ecosystem. For now, millions await clarity and resolution, hoping for a swift return to normalcy. In the meantime, the incident serves as a stark reminder of how deeply intertwined our lives are with cloud infrastructure—and how vulnerable we are when it falters.