Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Millions scramble online after Amazon Web Services outage

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Published :

20-10-2025 15:53|

On October 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon, experienced a significant outage that disrupted a vast swath of the internet.

The disruption began around midnight Pacific Time, primarily affecting the US-EAST-1 region due to a DNS (Domain Name System) failure, a critical component that routes internet traffic.

This event was not just an inconvenience for Amazon's own products like its e-commerce site, Prime Video, Alexa, and Ring, it cascaded globally, impacting hundreds of unrelated platforms that rely on AWS for hosting, storage, and computing power.
cnbc.com

AWS powers an estimated 30-50 percent of the web's backend infrastructure, making it the "invisible backbone" of modern digital life.

The outage knocked out or degraded performance for a broad array of consumer, financial, gaming, and enterprise services, including: Snapchat, Reddit, Fortnite, Roblox, Canva, Duolingo, and Pokémon GO.

Here are some online reactions:

canva is down y’all should see the office right now pic.twitter.com/UfpfO7HvHW
— tido bling (@tiido_bling) October 20, 2025

everyone rushing to twitter to check if Snapchat, Amazon, Medium, Canva, Perplexity, Duolingo, Zoom, Roblox, Apple are currently down...pic.twitter.com/82LG2RdN7s
— Ashad (@ashadahmed_) October 20, 2025

Today, millions of people are about to discover that Amazon Web Services is the most important company in the world that they've never heard of.
— Neil Morrow (@mrneilmorrow) October 20, 2025

The employee at Amazon web services trying to fix the servers pic.twitter.com/ghy01W2eh1
— Honest Curry Fan (@cookdbycurgoat) October 20, 2025

You know you are adulting really really hard and are a workaholic when you don’t even notice WhatsApp, Instagram, or Twitter going down, but the moment Canva stops working your whole world falls apart.
— سارہ (@SendCheesecake) October 20, 2025