Millions of users across the United States woke up today to find their favorite apps, websites, and online services either down or barely functioning. From banking and streaming to gaming and shopping, a wide range of platforms were hit by what’s being called a major internet outage today — and at the center of it all is Amazon Web Services (AWS), the backbone of much of the modern internet.
What Happened During Today’s Internet Outage
The disruption began early Monday morning, when AWS’s US-EAST-1 region, based in Northern Virginia, started experiencing widespread network and server failures. This region supports a massive portion of the web’s infrastructure — including some of the largest tech companies in the world.
Within minutes, reports of outages began flooding in. Users couldn’t access popular platforms like Prime Video, Snapchat, Venmo, Robinhood, Chime, and Ring, among many others. Even major news outlets and smaller e-commerce websites saw loading errors, slow response times, and complete downtime.
This wasn’t just a local glitch — it quickly turned into a nationwide digital blackout, disrupting millions of Americans who rely on cloud-powered tools for work, entertainment, and communication.
How AWS Triggered the Internet Outage
AWS is the world’s largest cloud service provider, powering a third of the global internet. It manages data storage, website hosting, streaming, and authentication systems for thousands of major companies.
When AWS fails — especially in its US-EAST-1 data center — the impact is immediate and far-reaching.
Here’s how today’s outage unfolded behind the scenes:
- DNS Routing Errors: AWS’s internal systems struggled to route domain name requests, preventing websites and apps from reaching their servers.
- Database Latency: Cloud storage systems like Amazon S3 and DynamoDB experienced slow responses, causing apps to time out or crash.
- Network Overload: As servers failed, traffic rerouted to alternate regions, overwhelming other AWS data centers.
- API Failures: Apps that depend on AWS for user authentication or data delivery couldn’t process logins, transactions, or media files.
This chain reaction meant that even companies with backup systems couldn’t fully operate. Essentially, the web’s backbone buckled under its own complexity.
Major Platforms Impacted by the Outage
The scale of today’s internet outage is vast, affecting multiple industries simultaneously. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest names and sectors hit by the AWS failure:
Entertainment & Streaming
- Amazon Prime Video – Playback and login failures nationwide.
- Twitch – Stream buffering and broadcasting errors.
- Spotify – Playlist syncing and account connection issues.
- Netflix (indirectly impacted) – Some users faced lag due to CDN routing issues.
Finance & Banking
- Venmo – Payments pending or failing to send.
- Robinhood – Login and trade execution interruptions.
- Chime – Transaction delays and balance update failures.
- Cash App – Some users unable to access funds or transfer money.
Social Media & Communication
- Snapchat – Messages failing to send and app login errors.
- Instagram Threads – Lag and connectivity problems for U.S. users.
- Slack & Discord – Occasional login timeouts and message delays.
E-Commerce & Technology
- Amazon.com – Search, checkout, and product pages intermittently down.
- Etsy & Shopify stores – Many small business sites failed to load.
- Ring & Alexa – Smart home devices disconnected from the cloud.
When a platform as massive as AWS encounters network trouble, the effect is like pulling a plug on half the internet — and that’s exactly what happened today.
Why AWS Outages Hit So Hard
To understand why today’s outage feels so big, it helps to know how deeply AWS is embedded in daily life.
AWS hosts:
- Over 1 million businesses and startups, including Netflix, Reddit, NASA, and Adobe.
- A vast portion of government and educational websites.
- Backend systems for banks, hospitals, and smart devices.
In short, AWS doesn’t just power “apps” — it powers the infrastructure that keeps the digital economy alive. When a core AWS region goes down, it creates a domino effect across nearly every corner of the web.
How Long Will the Outage Last?
As of now, AWS engineers are actively restoring affected systems. Service updates suggest partial recovery is underway, but many platforms continue to experience delays or degraded performance.
Based on similar outages in past years, full recovery typically takes several hours, with some smaller platforms facing lingering slowdowns for the rest of the day.
Users may notice:
- Logins working again but pages loading slowly.
- Transactions reappearing after earlier “failed” messages.
- Video playback improving as servers rebalance traffic.
What You Can Do During the Outage
While you can’t fix AWS’s servers yourself, there are ways to minimize disruption:
- Avoid refreshing repeatedly — it can cause duplicate requests and errors.
- Don’t retry failed payments or trades until the platform confirms service is restored.
- Use alternative apps not dependent on AWS if available.
- Stay updated via official social media or service status pages.
- Restart apps later in the day once full service resumes.
Remember: this isn’t a problem with your device or internet connection — it’s a server-side issue affecting major cloud providers.
The Bigger Picture: A Cloud-Dominated Internet
Today’s major internet outage is another reminder that a handful of tech giants now control most of the web’s functionality. When AWS or Google Cloud goes down, billions of dollars in commerce, communication, and entertainment can grind to a halt.
It also raises serious questions about digital centralization — what happens when one company’s server outage takes down a significant portion of the global internet?
Experts argue that while cloud computing remains the future, companies must diversify their infrastructure across multiple providers to prevent such large-scale disruptions in the future.
Final Thoughts
So, what caused the major internet outage today?
The culprit is clear: an AWS infrastructure failure that rippled through every industry connected to its cloud ecosystem.
From streaming your favorite show to checking your stock portfolio, millions of Americans experienced firsthand how dependent our daily lives have become on a single cloud provider.
The good news: AWS engineers are restoring services, and most websites are expected to return to normal shortly. But the event serves as a powerful reminder — when one cloud hiccups, the entire internet catches a cold.