Amazon Web Services outage cripples major platforms worldwide
Glitch hits gaming, banking, media and government platforms hard
Websites, apps, and essential services across the United States and beyond were thrown into chaos yesterday after a major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing giant that powers much of the Internet.
The disruption, which began around 3.11am ET (2.11pm Thailand time) yesterday, October 20, stemmed from a failure in AWS’s internal network load balancer system. The glitch triggered a domino effect, knocking out access to services used daily by millions, from Snapchat and Zoom to banking apps, airline systems, and media outlets.
“The root cause is an underlying internal subsystem responsible for monitoring the health of our network load balancers.”
AWS said that new customer requests had been temporarily limited while engineers worked to restore functionality.
Among the hardest-hit were popular apps like Snapchat, Ring, and Zoom, gaming platforms such as Fortnite and Roblox, and even financial institutions like Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland. Tech giant Apple also saw disruptions across services, including Apple Music.
Downdetector reported over 6.5 million complaints, with more than 1,000 sites and apps experiencing problems. The UK government’s tax website (HMRC), airline systems, and even US Medicare’s portal were all affected. Coinbase, Duolingo, Venmo, and Robinhood also reported issues.
Despite AWS declaring the issue “fully mitigated” by 6.35am ET, significant delays and service interruptions continued into the evening, according to ongoing reports.
Media outlets weren’t spared either. Disney, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press were among those affected. AP activated a backup system to deliver news to the public.
The outage even hit AWS’s own support systems, leaving customers unable to file reports or get real-time updates through the automated ticketing platform, reported NBC News and the BBC.
Critics were quick to weigh in. Corinne Cath-Speth of Article 19, a digital rights NGO, called the situation a “democratic failure,” warning that single-point dependencies such as AWS threaten online freedom. Elon Musk chimed in, labelling Signal’s vulnerability to AWS outages as “pretty weird.”
While services have now returned to normal, the incident has reignited concerns about the fragility of centralised cloud infrastructure in an increasingly digital world. AWS, which generated US$107 billion (approximately 3.9 trillion baht) last year, is under pressure as affected companies tally their losses.
In a recent development, some AWS-powered sites in Thailand are still experiencing disruptions, such as the Thai Meteorological Department’s official site and Canva (this morning, October 21).
More updates to follow.
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