Amazon internet outage reactions hit full meltdown

Oct 20, 2025 - 14:00

A worldwide issue related to Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday caused a huge amount of internet platforms to stop working — with strong reactions from people online.

As Mashable's Eric Miller reports, citing Downdetector, internet services including Amazon's storefront, Prime, Alexa, Ring, AT&T, Venmo, Robinhood, Slack, and Lyft went down shortly after 3 a.m. ET.

(Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, which also owns Mashable.)

Social media and messaging platforms Snapchat, Reddit, and Signal, gaming platforms including Roblox, Fortnite, and Steam, and major streaming services including Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu were also affected. Mashable has a full list of the platforms and services impacted by the outage.

A screenshot of Amazon Web Services issues reported on Downdetector.

Spikes on Downdetector's homepage showing AWS-powered platforms. Credit: Mashable screenshot: Downdetector

In an update posted on a company dashboard at 5:01 a.m. ET Monday, AWS stated it had "identified a potential root cause for error rates for the DynamoDB APIs in the US-EAST-1 Region," which was "related to DNS resolution." After working to resolve the issue, AWS reported at 5:27 a.m. ET, "We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding."

Then, at 6:35 a.m. ET, AWS posted, "The underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now." However, it added that "some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution."

Mashable reached out to Amazon for further comment and was directed to the AWS Health Dashboard.

Companies and brands affected including Epic Games' Fortnite and British bank Lloyds posted on X they were investigating the impact of the outage.

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Individual company leaders, including Signal president Meredith Whittaker, also acknowledged the outage on social media.

PSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.— Meredith Whittaker (@meredithmeredith.bsky.social) 20 October 2025 at 09:00

Instantly, users flocked to still functioning social media sites including X and Bluesky to lament their lack of access, vent about their malfunctioning Alexa alarms, or drop the requisite run-into-the-sunset post that always comes with an internet outage.

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aws outage i guess that means its time for me to go to sleep— hailey (@hailey.at) 20 October 2025 at 09:25

There's an AWS outage this morning impacting lots of services; it started around 07.30 UK time. People who use services like Alexa as their alarm clocks have just had a helpful reminder that using a device reliant on connectivity to carry out a task that doesn't need connectivity is not a good idea.— Duncan Hothersall (@dhothersall.bsky.social) 20 October 2025 at 09:15

This story is developing...

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UPDATE: Oct. 20, 2025, 10:47 a.m. UTC Added additional AWS dashboard update.

UPDATE: Oct. 20, 2025, 12:00 p.m. UTC Added additional AWS update.