Why YouTube faced a global outage today
What's the story
YouTube and its associated services, YouTube Music and YouTube TV, experienced a major global outage today. The disruption affected over 800,000 users worldwide. The issue started showing error messages around 7:00pm ET (4:30am IST today), with the mobile app displaying "something went wrong." Google later confirmed that the problem had been fixed. But what really caused this widespread disruption? Let's find out.
Widespread disruption
Glitch affected video streaming, music playback
The outage, which started quietly on Wednesday evening, quickly turned into a global issue. By 4:30am IST today, users around the world were met with an error message reading, "An error occurred. Please try again later." The YouTube app on mobile devices displayed a similar message: "Something went wrong." The problem wasn't limited to video streaming either; YouTube Music also stopped working, although offline downloads could still be played.
User reports
Over 800,000 users faced issues
The outage was widespread, with over 800,000 users reporting problems not just with YouTube but also its associated services like YouTube Music and YouTube TV. In the US alone, more than 366,000 users reported issues by 7:55pm ET (5:25am IST today). In India specifically, around 63% of users said they couldn't play videos due to "Playback error" or "An error occurred" messages. Around 30% faced issues specifically with the mobile app.
Attack rumors
Hacker group claims responsibility for DDoS attack
While the cause of the outage remains unclear, speculation spread almost as quickly as the glitch itself. An X account named "Dark Storm Team," allegedly linked to a hacker group, claimed the responsibility for a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on YouTube. However, YouTube and its parent firm Google have not confirmed any such cyberattack. The company acknowledged the disruption and said its teams were looking into the issue.
Issue acknowledged
YouTube confirms restoration of services
In a post on X, YouTube confirmed the outage and said it was investigating the issue. By 5:30pm ET (6:00am IST today), YouTube confirmed that the issue had been resolved. A Google spokesperson later stated, "Confirming this is resolved across all YouTube services. Thanks again for your patience! Our technical teams were actively working to restore access across YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV."