A significant outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday has caused widespread disruptions to numerous popular applications and websites, coinciding with the Diwali celebrations. Services such as Snapchat, Canva, Signal, Duolingo, and the AI search engine Perplexity were among those affected, leaving millions of users unable to access their accounts or use essential features.

AWS confirmed the outage, stating it was experiencing "increased error rates and latencies" across multiple services, particularly in its US-EAST-1 region. The issues began around 12:11 a.m. PDT, leading to login failures on Snapchat, server errors in Fortnite, and frozen design tools on Canva. Perplexity's CEO, Aravind Srinivas, acknowledged the problem on social media, stating, "Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it."

The outage also impacted major platforms like Amazon, Prime Video, Spotify, and Coinbase, with users reporting difficulties accessing these services. Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, noted a surge in complaints starting around 3 a.m. EDT. Other affected services included Google Search, YouTube, and various gaming platforms like Roblox and Clash of Clans.

As the outage unfolded, AWS promised to provide updates every 30 to 45 minutes, but no specific timeline for resolution was given. The incident highlights the vulnerability of cloud-dependent technologies, especially during peak usage times like festive seasons.

The internet reacted with a mix of frustration and humor as users took to social media to share their experiences. Despite the disruptions, AWS has yet to release a detailed statement regarding the cause of the outage or its expected duration.