Here's why the internet is broken right now

Alexa *really* didn't want to come to work today.
 By 
Rachel Kraus
 on 
A screenshot from the website Downdetector shows outages across multiple Amazon services.
When the internet's biggest cloud service provider has problems, so does everything else. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector

Do a bunch of your apps seem like they decided to call in sick today? 

That's because they did. From Venmo to Disney+ to the McDonald's app, outages are currently plaguing multiple services across the internet. The Downdetector home page is a sea of red spikes, all indicating service disruptions occurring around the same time. (Editor's note: Downdetector is owned by Mashable's parent company, Ziff Davis).

A screenshot from Downdetector shows outages at Disney+, Venmo, IMDb, and more.
The internet is struggling. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector

These apps and websites have something in common that is apparently affecting them all: They rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store their data and/or provide computing power. AWS is Amazon's cloud computing business, the largest business of its kind (followed by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud). So when AWS breaks, pretty much everything breaks, too.


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Amazon acknowledged the outage shortly after the Associated Press reported that users were experiencing trouble. Amazon issued a statement saying that it was "actively working towards recovery."

Basically, they're working on it. But don't bother Alexa right now.

Topics Amazon

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Rachel Kraus

Rachel Kraus is a Mashable Tech Reporter specializing in health and wellness. She is an LA native, NYU j-school graduate, and writes cultural commentary across the internetz.

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