Many Platforms Around World Disrupted, Including Canva and Snapchat

A widespread internet outage disrupted several popular apps and websites on October 20, affecting millions of users worldwide. Platforms including Clash of Clans, Snapchat, Duolingo, Canva, Fortnite, and Roblox experienced major service interruptions, according to outage-tracking website Down Detector.

The disruption has been linked to technical issues at Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the world's largest cloud computing providers.

Amazon confirmed increased error rates and delays across multiple AWS systems, including DynamoDB and Elastic Compute Cloud, which power the back-end infrastructure for many online platforms.

The problems reportedly began around 8:00am UK time and primarily affected Amazon's data centres in northern Virginia, a critical hub for global internet traffic. As a result, a wide range of services from entertainment apps and online games to financial platforms and even government websites experienced downtime.

Down Detector data showed a surge in complaints from users across the UK, the United States, and other regions. Alongside social and gaming platforms, services like Amazon Music, Prime Video, Coinbase, Vodafone, PlayStation Network, and even the UK's tax authority website were affected.

At 2:27am PDT in its AWS Health Dashboard, Amazon said, "We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests."