Major Internet Failure Impacts Many Online Platforms and Mobile Apps

A large-scale online outage has impacted many online platforms and mobile apps globally, as users experiencing troubles accessing the internet after problems at Amazon’s web hosting system.

The disrupted apps encompass Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, as well as a host of Amazon-managed operations including its primary shopping platform and the Ring doorbell device manufacturer.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was affected along with its affiliates the bank Halifax and Bank of Scotland, while there were additional accounts of problems reaching the the tax authority website on Monday morning. Also in the UK, multiple Ring users used networks to report their doorbells were not working.

Just within Britain, reports of problems on individual applications totaled the tens of thousands for each platform.

Amazon reported that the issue began in the east coast of the US at the cloud division, a division that provides vital web backbone for numerous businesses, who rent out capacity on Amazon servers. The cloud platform is the world’s largest online services platform.

Soon after late night (PDT) in the US (8am BST), the company announced “increased error rates and delays” for Amazon's platforms in a area on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. The cascading impact was seen to affect platforms around the world, and the Downdetector site reporting issues with the corresponding services in different parts of the world.

The outage tracker Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on online failures, also reported a surge in outages on that morning, and numerous instances situated in Virginia, the location of Amazon’s US-East-1 region where the company stated the outage began.