A massive internet outage has caused widespread chaos globally, knocking out dozens of major websites, online games, and crucial applications, including tech giants like Amazon and social platforms such as Snapchat. The disruption, which began early this morning, is believed to be linked to a widespread issue originating within Amazon Web Services (AWS) the cloud computing unit responsible for hosting a significant portion of the world’s internet infrastructure.
Reports tracked by Downdetector, a platform that monitors website complaints, showed a sudden and broad spike in outages affecting a wide range of services. Among the platforms hit were consumer-facing sites like Snapchat and the gaming platform Roblox, as well as essential service providers such as Vodafone, Coinbase, and multiple banking institutions. In the United States alone, Downdetector logged over 2,000 outage reports tied to the AWS disruption.
On its official service status page, Amazon confirmed it was aware of the issue and investigating reports of “increased error rates” and delays impacting “multiple AWS services.” The company noted that teams were working to identify the root cause and restore affected systems as quickly as possible.
Since AWS powers a vast share of online operations globally from entertainment and social media to finance and e-commerce — any disruption in its service triggers a chain reaction of failures across numerous industries. The outage once again underscores the digital world’s deep dependence on a few dominant cloud providers, reigniting discussions about infrastructure resilience and the risks of centralization in cloud computing.
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