Major Google Cloud Outage Disrupts YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat
A widespread Google Cloud outage causes hours of service disruptions for major platforms like YouTube and Gmail. Google blames network congestion for the issue, which primarily affects users on the US East Coast and parts of Europe.
A major Google Cloud outage strikes on a Sunday afternoon, causing widespread disruptions to popular platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat. The issues begin at approximately 4 p.m. ET and primarily affect users along the East Coast of the United States, as well as parts of South America and Europe. Down Detector logs show significant clusters of users reporting service interruptions during this timeframe.
The outage impacts more than just consumer applications, as major companies like PayPal, Target, and Weight Watchers also rely on Google Cloud for their backend operations. Even Apple uses Google Cloud to power parts of its iCloud storage services. Frustrated users quickly take to social media, pushing the hashtag #YouTubeDOWN to the top of the trending topics list in the United States.
Google attributes the disruption to network congestion and works swiftly to implement a fix. By 7:34 p.m. ET, YouTube reports that its services are restored for the vast majority of users, and Google officially confirms the resolution of all network congestion issues shortly after. The company promises to conduct an internal investigation to prevent similar outages from happening in the future.