On Thursday, major services including Google, OpenAI, and Spotify experienced significant outages due to a widespread technology failure.
Numerous platforms were affected, with many users reporting problems on Downdetector.com, which monitors service disruptions. The issue began at approximately 2 p.m. EST and peaked around 2:30 p.m. before starting to subside for most services.
Cloudflare, which supports various companies affected by the outage, issued a statement noting that several of its services were encountering sporadic failures and confirmed they were looking into the issue.
A representative from the company indicated that Google Cloud was the root cause of the outage.
“A limited selection of our services relies on Google Cloud and were affected,” the spokesperson informed CBS News. “We anticipate these services will return soon. Our core Cloudflare services remain intact.”
By Thursday evening, Cloudflare’s services had been restored and were reported as “fully operational,” according to the spokesperson.
Problems at Google Cloud
Google Cloud began citing issues with its Google Cloud Platform products around 2:46 p.m. on Thursday, receiving over 13,000 disruption reports on Downdetector.com. By 3:30 p.m., the company announced that most of its services were back online, with a full recovery expected shortly.
“We are looking into a service disruption affecting some Google Cloud services,” a Google Cloud spokesperson relayed to CBS News. “For the latest updates, please check our public status dashboard,” they added.
“We will release a comprehensive incident report detailing the root cause, timeline, and next steps for remediation in the coming days,” the company noted on its status webpage.
Wide-ranging user impact
In a blog post on Friday, Cloudflare expressed regret for the outage that affected all its clients.
“We sincerely apologize for this outage: it was our responsibility, and while the immediate cause was a failure from a third-party vendor, we are ultimately accountable for our dependencies and the structure we choose around them,” the firm stated.
By late Thursday afternoon, many services including Spotify and OpenAI appeared to be operational again.
Spotify experienced the greatest number of outages, with 46,000 users reporting issues by 3 p.m. on Thursday. In a community update early Friday, a Spotify moderator mentioned that the problems “should now be resolved for everyone.”
OpenAI announced in an update at 4:26 p.m. that “all affected services have been restored.”
According to Downdetector.com, the following platforms were part of the technology outage on Thursday:
- Discord
- Google Meet
- Snapchat
- Spotify
- Gmail
- Google Cloud
- Google Nest
- DoorDash
- Character AI
- YouTube
- Box
- Etsy
- Pokémon Trading Card Game
- Pokémon Go
- Cloudflare
- Mailchimp
- UPS
- FuboTV
- Rocket League
- Verizon
- Vimeo
- Shopify
- HighLevel
- Paramount+ (CBS News and Paramount+ are owned by Paramount Global)
- Claude
- D&D Beyond
- T-Mobile
- Clover
- Phasmophobia
- Ecobee
- HighLevel
- Dragon Ball
- Procore
- NPM
- Dialpad
- Dave
- OpenAI
- Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft 365
- DeviantArt
- Fitbit
- Marvel Contest of Champions
- Cursor
- Wix
- Zoom
- Google Gemini
- Spectrum
- Roblox
- AT&T
- reCAPTCHA
