Temecula, Calif. – A massive outage struck YouTube on Tuesday evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of users worldwide unable to access videos or livestreams on the platform.
The disruptions began around 5 p.m. PST on Feb. 17, with reports of connectivity issues spiking dramatically within minutes. Users attempting to visit the website or mobile app were greeted with a blank screen or a generic error message reading, “Something Went Wrong,” accompanied by a “Try Again” button that failed to resolve the issue.
According to Downdetector, a website that tracks online service interruptions, reports of the outage surged past 300,000 in the United States alone by 5:30 p.m. PST. The issue appears to be global, with similar spikes in user complaints recorded across the United Kingdom, Europe, and parts of Asia.
The outage is affecting multiple Alphabet-owned services. While the primary YouTube platform accounts for the majority of reports, subscribers to YouTube TV, the company’s live television streaming service, also reported losing access to broadcast channels and DVR content.
As of 5:45 p.m. PST, YouTube had not released an official statement regarding the cause of the technical failure or an estimated time for restoration.
Users took to alternative social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and Threads, to express frustration. Trending topics quickly shifted to the outage, with many content creators and viewers sharing screenshots of the error message.
“I was in the middle of a livestream and everything just went black,” said a user on X. “Now I can’t even get the homepage to load.”
Internet monitors indicate the disruption is a server-side error, suggesting a significant failure in Google’s content delivery infrastructure rather than a local internet service provider issue.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
