October 20, 2025 – Worldwide – A significant outage on Monday morning disrupted several major online services, including popular apps like Canva, Snapchat, and Duolingo, due to an apparent issue with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The widespread service failure affected millions of users globally and caused major disruptions across various industries, including banking, government services, and social media.
What Happened: AWS Outage Affects Major Services Worldwide
The outage began on Monday, October 20, 2025, and impacted a range of services reliant on Amazon Web Services. According to Downdetector, a website that tracks online service issues, numerous UK banks, including Barclays, Lloyds, and the Bank of Scotland, reported disruptions. By 9:00 AM UK time, more than 2,681 reports had been logged regarding AWS issues, and over 500 reports were filed for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) services.
Other affected platforms included messaging services such as Slack, and companies like Ring, Vodafone, and EE, which saw a spike in reported outages.
Background on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing giant that powers the infrastructure of a vast number of websites and online platforms, which is why its service disruptions have such a broad-reaching impact. AWS is responsible for hosting critical web applications, from social media and e-commerce to financial services. When AWS experiences issues, as seen today, the ripple effect is felt across multiple sectors globally.
Amazon’s Response and Updates
Amazon swiftly acknowledged the problem, with an initial update at 9:26 AM, stating there were “significant error rates” affecting its services. In the statement, Amazon confirmed that customers may be unable to create or update support cases during the outage. Engineers were immediately deployed to investigate the issue and mitigate the problem.
At 10:01 AM, Amazon confirmed that the “potential root cause” had been identified. The company advised customers to continue retrying any failed requests.
Later, at 11:35 AM, Amazon stated that most operations were succeeding normally, although the company was still working on a full resolution of the issue.
Public and Social Media Reactions
The outage prompted widespread frustration from users and companies that rely on these services. On social media, users expressed their frustration with comments like, “Can’t even access Canva for work now!” and “Snapchat’s down, great!” Many took to Twitter to share their frustrations and discuss the scale of the disruption.
In addition, concerns over the dependency on large cloud services like AWS were raised, with some questioning whether relying on a single provider for such essential services was a sound strategy. Industry experts suggested that the outage highlights the vulnerabilities that come with overreliance on a single infrastructure provider.
What Happens Next: Investigation and Ongoing Updates
As of now, Amazon continues to work towards a complete resolution of the outage. The company has pledged to provide more updates as the situation develops. Customers affected by the issue, particularly those in business and finance sectors, are advised to stay informed through Amazon’s updates and use alternative services if necessary.
AWS‘s response and the investigation into the cause of the issue will likely be closely followed by both users and other cloud services providers, who may reassess their dependence on Amazon Web Services.
This story may be updated with more information as it becomes available.
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