Significant Internet Disruption Affects Dozens Sites and Apps

A large-scale internet disruption has affected many websites and apps around the world, and users noting issues accessing the internet due to difficulties at Amazon’s online infrastructure system.

The affected services encompass Snapchat, Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, as well as multiple Amazon-managed platforms including its primary shopping site and the Ring security home security firm.

Throughout Britain, Lloyds bank was affected in addition to its affiliates Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were further notifications of problems using the the tax authority site on Monday morning. Furthermore across the UK, multiple Ring users took to online platforms to complain their security devices were malfunctioning.

Just within Britain, accounts of issues on specific apps ran into the many thousands for each app.

Officials confirmed that the issue started in the east coast of the United States at Amazon Web Services, a unit that provides vital internet framework for a host of businesses, who lease space on the company's servers. Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest online services service.

Shortly after the start of the day (PDT) in the United States (8am BST), officials reported “elevated error rates and slowdowns” for Amazon's platforms in a region on the east coast of the America. The ripple effect was seen to affect services around the world, and the outage tracking website indicating issues with the identical platforms in multiple continents.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on online failures, also reported a increase in outages on that morning, and numerous instances found in the state of Virginia, the site of the AWS US-East-1 zone where AWS said the issues started.

Margaret Houston
Margaret Houston

A dedicated writer and theologian passionate about sharing faith-based insights and fostering community connections.