Several major apps and online services worldwide went offline on Monday following a widespread outage affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform that powers much of the internet.
The disruption impacted popular platforms including Snapchat, Fortnite, Roblox, Signal, Coinbase, Robinhood, and several UK banks such as Lloyds Bank and the Bank of Scotland. Telecom providers Vodafone and BT, as well as the UK’s tax authority HMRC, also reported service interruptions.
AWS confirmed that it was experiencing increased “error rates and latencies” across multiple systems, saying in a statement: “We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery.”
It marks the first major global internet disruption since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction, which crippled technology systems in hospitals, airports, and financial institutions.
AI startup Perplexity was among those affected, with CEO Aravind Srinivas posting on X: “Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”
Gaming services such as Fortnite, Roblox, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans were hit, alongside digital payment platforms including Venmo and Chime. Outage tracker Downdetector also reported issues with Amazon’s main shopping site, Prime Video, and Alexa.
In the United States, ride-hailing service Lyft was unavailable to thousands of users, while in the UK, banks and telecom operators were among the hardest hit. Signal President Meredith Whittaker confirmed on X that the encrypted messaging platform was affected by the AWS outage as well.
AWS referred inquiries to its official service status page, while Amazon declined to comment further.
Despite the widespread disruption, Elon Musk noted that his social media platform remained operational, posting simply on X: “X works.”
