Massive Internet Outage on June 12th Affecting Major Services Explained:

On Thursday, June 12, starting around 2:30 p.m. ET, widespread internet disruptions impacted several popular platforms, including Google services (Gmail, Google Meet), Cloudflare, Spotify, Discord, Twitch, and many others. Users across the globe reported difficulties accessing these sites and apps, with error messages surging on Down Detector.

By 3:30 p.m., many services showed signs of recovery, but intermittent issues persisted. Cloudflare acknowledged “broad service outages” and indicated that systems were recovering, though some disruptions were expected to continue. Meanwhile, Google Cloud reported issues with multiple products, including Gmail and Google Meet.

Other affected platforms included Discord, Etsy, Shopify, Pokémon Trading Card Game, MLB.tv, Snapchat, and DoorDash. These widespread outages were felt particularly by workers trying to access productivity tools like Google Meet, leading to frustration during work hours.

While the disruptions caused ripple effects across the internet, many websites appeared to be recovering by 3:35 p.m. The incident highlights the impact of disruptions to major hosting services like Cloudflare and Google Cloud.

What Caused the Service Outage?

A representative for the hosting platform, Cloudflare, pointed the blame at Google Cloud, stating that the issue was caused by “an outage of a 3rd party service that is a key dependency” for Cloudflare services.

Initial speculation focused on internet hosting platforms like Cloudflare and Google Cloud, both of which reported problems on Thursday. An initial update on the Cloudflare status page stated, “We are seeing a number of services suffer intermittent failures. We are continuing to investigate this and we will update this list as we assess the impact on a per-service level.” Meanwhile, the Google Cloud status page reported that “Multiple GCP products are experiencing service issues.”

What’s Happening at Google Cloud?

By 5:15 p.m. ET, Google Cloud reported that most products had recovered, although some “residual impacts” remained. A previous update indicated that the root cause had been identified, and appropriate mitigations were applied. Google stated, “Our infrastructure has recovered in all regions except us-central1. Google Cloud products that rely on the affected infrastructure are seeing recovery in multiple locations. Our engineers are aware of the customers still experiencing issues on us-central1 and multi-region/us and are actively working on full recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery.”

What Does Down Detector Say?

Starting around 2 p.m. ET on June 12, Down Detector saw a surge in user reports, with Google services, AI platforms, e-commerce sites, and social apps like Twitch, Discord, and Nintendo Switch Online all experiencing issues. The outage, largely caused by problems with Google Cloud, disrupted platforms including Spotify, Character.ai, Snapchat, UPS, Pokémon, and Google Workspace.

By 12:41 PT, Google confirmed the root cause had been identified and mitigated, though some regions continued to experience slower recovery. By 2 p.m. PT, Down Detector reported that the outage peaks had passed, with issues rapidly subsiding.

Ongoing Recovery and Further Updates

By 3:30 p.m. ET, many services had fully recovered, and issues began to subside. Cloudflare and Google Cloud confirmed that their systems were back to normal, and most affected companies reported that their services had been fully restored. The outage’s impact had significantly diminished by the evening, with users able to access their platforms without further disruptions.

Should any new information emerge, we will update this article accordingly.

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Written by the Digital Marketing Team at Creative Programs & Systems: https://www.cpsmi.com/.