A significant internet disruption on Monday left millions of users unable to access some of the world’s leading apps and websites, with reports indicating widespread outages affecting services hosted by Amazon Web Services.
Outage tracker Downdetector recorded a surge in complaints globally, with Snapchat alone reporting over 5,000 issues.
Other major platforms reportedly affected included Duolingo, Roblox, Canva, Ring, and Amazon’s own services.
In an update at 12:34, Amazon Web Services acknowledged “increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region.” The company added that engineers are “immediately engaged and actively working on both mitigating the issue and fully understanding the root cause.”
AWS, a critical backbone of modern internet infrastructure, said the problem originates from its cloud computing services, particularly Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, which handle essential storage and server functions for numerous client companies.
The outage began in the early hours, around 8 a.m. in the UK (midnight Pacific Time), when AWS systems detected elevated error rates.
Given AWS’s role as one of the most relied-upon global cloud providers, generating $108 billion in revenue last year, any interruption can have far-reaching consequences across the internet.
As of the latest reports, AWS engineers are continuing their efforts to fully resolve the issue and determine its root cause. Users worldwide are encouraged to monitor Downdetector for live updates and service restoration progress.
