Massive June 12 internet outage explained: What we know so far (updated)

On Thursday afternoon, a massive list of popular internet services all started experiencing outages at the same time.

Thousands of confused internet users took to Google and social media to ask why they couldn't log into their favorite websites and apps. The front page of Down Detector was a menagerie of spiking orange line graphs, starting around 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 12. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis owns both Mashable and Down Detector.)

So, what caused the outage?

Here's what we know so far.

What's causing the service outage?

In a statement to Mashable, a representative for hosting platform Cloudflare pointed the blame at Google Cloud. In addition, the Cloudflare status page attributed the service to "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, as both companies reported problems 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." And at the Google Cloud status page, the company reported that "Multiple GCP products are experiencing Service issues."

Mashable reached out to Google for comment, and we'll update this story if we receive more information.

What's happening at Google Cloud?

By 5:15 p.m. ET, the Google Cloud status page stated, "Most of the Google Cloud products are fully recovered," though some "residual impacts" continued.

A previous update on the page said: "We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations. 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 Thursday, June 12, Down Detector, a platform where users can report issues with popular websites and apps, received an avalanche of user reports, with Google Services, popular AI platforms, and e-commerce websites all affected. Social apps like Twitch, Nintendo Switch Online, and Discord all received a spike in error reports as well.

Even more services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector

Some impacted services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector

More services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector

The spike in outage reports started to calm down by 3:30 p.m., and after a few hours, most platforms seemed to be operating normally again.

Is Google down?

During the initial outage, Down Detector users reported problems to a variety of Google services, although Google Search and Gmail appeared to be working for most users. Multiple Mashable reporters also experienced problems accessing services such as Google Meet. Google Cloud experienced issues, which would help explain why so many Google services are struggling.

What websites, apps, and platforms were affected?

As of 3:20 p.m. ET, dozens of popular platforms were down or experiencing disruptions. According to Down Detector, the following sites reported a surge in error messages:

• Discord

• Google and all related services (e.g. YouTube, Google Meet)

• Spotify

• Twitch

• Character.ai

• Rocket League

• Cloudflare

• Etsy

• Pokémon Trading Card Game

• Snapchat

• fuboTV

• Anthropic

• Shopify

• Gemini

• MLB.tv

• Doordash

• Ikea

• Equifax

• Marvel

• Vimeo

• Nintendo Switch Online

• Gitlab

• Calendly

• Bluesky

• Grok

• Fortnite

• Apple Music

• Netflix

• Disney Plus

• Prime Video

This story is developing...

UPDATE: Jun. 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with additional details about the widespread internet service disruption. An earlier version of this story stated that Amazon Web Services (AWS) was impacted by the outages; however, an Amazon representative told Mashable this is not the case. An AWS spokesperson said, "Currently there are no board service issues with AWS."